For the First Time
by ArcanaElement
Summary: Abandoned by Cross, Allen enrolls in Dark Order Academy, where everything is strange and everyone is a stranger. He meets two other students, Lavi and Lenalee, who become his friends and make his attendance there a fun, enjoyable time - but Allen begins to feel the stirring of unknown emotions in his heart. Will one of his friends become something more?
1. Arriving

[A/N] - So. Read this please~

Hi everyone! Long time no see, ahaha... If you don't know me, my name (as far as ff-net is concerned) is ArcanaElement - call me Arcana, or Arc. For those of you that do know me... -bows with head to the floor- I am so sorry for not updating Maikaze for the better part of a year. I do hate myself for it, but life has been... life. You all know what I mean. I'll try my best to get something out for that as well.

Now. For the new fiction. I finished D. Gray-man a while ago and wanted to write my own fanfiction of fluff and fun using my two favorite characters, Allen and Lavi.

**Based off of that, you should have automatically assumed that this will be a boyxboy/shonen-ai/yaoi-without-the-smex-because-this-is-staying-T-rated-okay-people fanfiction - and you would be correct. Because of this, I do _not _want to see anyone flaming me because I didn't warn you. Because I just did. It's right there. See? Yup.**

I welcome all reviews and constructive criticism - but please, don't take this too seriously. I thought this up and made a rough draft in a week and then let it fall flat because I ran into writer's block headfirst. I still haven't recovered.

And so you get the first chapter of _For the First Time._

Enjoy!

**Recommendations: **Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner that way. Do not read if you do not like shonen-ai.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own D. Gray-man or anything affiliated with it. Makes me sad. I want Lavi.

* * *

Allen tilted his head back to stare up past the wrought-iron spikes adorning the top of the front gate of the imposing Dark Order Academy. Past the dark steel bars separating the sidewalk from the inside of the school, he could see a large fountain in the center of a green area with students in uniform milling around and enjoying each other's company. The fountain sported five figures that were allowing the water to flow out into the large stone basin towards the base. A terrifyingly familiar figure among their number reminded Allen of the reason why he was at the Academy in the first place.

* * *

"Hey, kid."

Allen resisted the urge to refute the nickname Cross had oh-so-lovingly bestowed upon him and instead answered with a somewhat subdued, "Yes, Master?" He looked up from the mass of paperwork he'd been working on for the past several hours – records of all the debts Cross owed various people that the one in debt refused to pay back himself.

A whack on the head from a calloused fist and a cloud of pipe smoke in his face was the initial reply Allen received. "Watch your tone," Cross warned him. "Here I was about to do your sorry ass a favor."

"A favor, Master?" Allen had to admit, he was curious about what Cross could possibly consider a favor to other people.

Cross took a drag from his pipe and blew the smoke towards Allen's face once more. "Well, maybe it's not a favor for you so much as it is for me. You're going to school."

Allen questioningly repeated, "School? Why am I going to school now, Master?" He'd never gone to school before, though he did understand how the system worked, and also had the knowledge necessary to succeed due to all of the… situations Cross had unleashed upon him.

"Because I've decided that you've been holding me back from the things that I really want – like women. Having to cart your ass around doesn't help me with those, so I'm going to drop you at a place that owes me a favor and get you out of my hair."

"Where would that be, Master?"

"Dark Order Academy. Once upon a time, some of my acquaintances decided that they wanted to help educate punks like you. I had the foresight to figure that if I helped them with their little project, I'd be able to get something out of it in the end, so I found them a site where they could build and they made some money to actually build the place."

_It sounds like you had the least work of it; I'm surprised you think that they'd still owe you for that, _Allen couldn't help but think. "I'd be living at this Academy then?"

Cross sighed heavily, leveling a one-eyed stare at his 'pupil' that seemed to say, 'I can't believe you.' "Do I have to spell out everything for you? How the hell would you attend the school if you didn't live there?"

Allen's eye twitched. "When would I begin attending?" _And getting you out of my hair, how about that?_

A grin split the unmasked half of Cross' face well in half, making Allen afraid for his own well-being. "Whenever you wake up. See you, kid."

All Allen knew was a solid impact to his head, then darkness.

* * *

Some unknown length of time after Cross' 'goodbye,' Allen had woken up in the backseat of a sleek black car to a man he didn't know alerting him to the fact that they were now outside the Academy. Allen had stepped out of the car with a suitcase of clothing and other necessities – which included a sizable amount of money, to his surprise. He hadn't expected Cross to leave him anything for him to live off of at all. There had also been a hastily-scrawled note in Cross' handwriting taped to the side of his suitcase addressed to him – well, assuming Cross thought that Allen's real name was 'kid.'

_Find Mother. She'll have to watch you now instead of me. Make some friends who'll have to cart your ass around for a while. Don't die._

Allen had thought it rather cryptic; after all, why, or how, would he find a way to die in a place like this?

The stone eyes of the statue of Cross Marian seemed to stare past the bars back at him. He involuntarily flinched slightly and sighed. _Even when he's trying to get me out of his hair, he haunts me without even trying._

A small section of the wrought-iron gate was fashioned into a door with a golden doorknob. Allen turned the knob and the barred door swung inwards, allowing him access to the school grounds. He walked forward a few steps on the paved path leading up to the fountain and took a quick glance around.

The summer sunshine warmed all of the students lounging around in the courtyard. Some had taken cover underneath large shady trees that dotted the green expanse of grass. He could see that some of the more daring students had taken up residence in the branches of the trees, calling down to those below. Girls sitting on the benches that lined the paved paths laughed at each other's conversations and snacked on different foods.

There were three buildings arranged around the courtyard, two fairly large ones to his left and right and a larger one directly in front of him past the fountain. Students were coming and going from all three, though the largest seemed to have the least amount of people around it. Allen assumed that would be where the faculty offices and official rooms would be, and possibly this aforementioned 'Mother.'

Continuing down the path brought Allen to a roundabout path circling the fountain, giving him a better view of the statues that made up the body of the decorations. Besides Cross, there seemed to be four other people dressed in long jackets and formal clothing with a kind of crest on the front of each jacket. It was rather ornate yet simple at the same time, a series of overlapping stars and circles with a cross with symbols etched onto each feature. _That must be the school's crest, _Allen realized.

He continued his walk past the fountain and several students who had stopped to look at him and whisper to their friends. He could pick out words from their hushed conversations while he made his way towards the large door of the main building.

"Hey, look at him!" A girl squealed to her giggling group of friends, pointing at him from behind her hand.

"What's with his hair?" One boy looked back at Allen from over his shoulder from where he was facing some other students.

"He's not in uniform… Is he a new student?" A pair of girls sitting on a bench on the side of the path followed him with their eyes.

"Did you see his face? What a weird tattoo…" Some of the boys he passed snickered among themselves.

"His _hand_, did you see it? It was all black and wrinkled…" A nervous-looking girl eyed his marred left arm and pointed it out to her friend.

Allen sighed. It wasn't that he hadn't expected reactions like those, but he could tell they were going to run rampant wherever he went in this school. And did he really look like the kind of person who would get a tattoo? _Honestly, these people and their minds are almost scarier than Master when he's angry._ Subconsciously, he combed his hair over the left side of his face with his hand to hide the oddly-shaped scar that adorned his face there.

After ascending the set of steps leading up to the massive slabs of wood passing for the double door of the main building, Allen found another small door built into them and opened it, stepping in and allowing it to close behind him. He found himself in a hallway that continued to his left and right with a flight of stairs in front of him. Unsure of where to go, he stood there for a moment, hoping someone would pass by and be able to help him.

Sure enough, someone did. A girl in the school's uniform with her long, dark hair drawn up into two ponytails came down the stairs and saw Allen next to the door.

"Oh!" She let out a sound of surprise, and upon arriving at the foot of the stairs asked him, "Could you possibly be Allen Walker?"

"Yes, I am," Allen replied. "May I ask how you know my name?"

The girl sighed, seemingly in relief, for her next words were, "That's great – I don't have to run around this huge place looking for you. I just came down from the headmistress' office and she'd told me to look for 'a boy named Allen Walker who looks like an old man.'" Her eyes widened and a hand came up to cover her mouth. "Er, I don't mean that you look like an old man; that's just what she told me about you. You don't look old to me or anything –"

"It's fine," Allen said, cutting her off with a small smile. "Would your headmistress happen to go by the name of Mother?"

The girl nodded. "She refuses to let anyone call her anything else, so we just go with it. She actually told me to take you to her once I found you, so…"

Allen nodded once. "Please, lead the way, Miss…"

"Oh, my name's Lenalee Lee, but Lenalee is fine. It's a pleasure to meet you, Allen." The girl gave him a smile over her shoulder from where she was ascending the stairs ahead of him.

"Likewise, Lenalee."

They arrived on the second floor of the building where another flight of stairs awaited them.

"This main building has three floors. The first floor is the main office, nurse's office, and faculty boarding, and this floor is the for teachers' offices. The next floor is only the headmistress' office, so we need to go up –"

"LENALEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A yell more akin to a shriek of the girl's name came from the hall on Allen's right. He saw a fast approaching figure sprinting down the hall towards Lenalee, on track to collide with her. He made a move to get in front of her to stop whatever was trying to attack her, but Lenalee sidestepped the charging figure with a sigh of annoyance, tripping them with a well-placed foot.

"What is it, Komui-nii – er, Komui-sensei?"

The person named Komui pulled himself up from where his face had hit the floor and turned around to violently hug Lenalee – and pull her away from Allen's general vicinity.

"Lenalee! What are you doing with this boy? Don't tell me you're actually trying to become a woman on your own without telling your big brother about –" An elbow to his ribs from Lenalee effectively took his breath away and he fell to his knees, clutching what was sure to be a newly-forming bruise. "Why are… you so mean to your… caring older brother?" He wheezed, tears seeming to form along his lower eyelids.

Lenalee sighed again. "Close personal contact between teachers and students isn't allowed, you know. Besides, I'm taking Allen to the headmistress' office – Mother asked for him earlier and I just happened to find him downstairs."

Komui seemed to ignore everything except for Allen's name in Lenalee's explanation. "So this monster who's trying to steal away my precious Lenalee has a name, does he? Watch yourself mister, it'll be over my dead body before I let you take her away from –"

"Komui-niisan! Did you listen to me at all?" Lenalee pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, Mother is waiting for Allen, so I'll talk to you later when you've calmed down. Let's go, Allen." She motioned to the slightly amused boy still on the last step of the stairs.

"Alright then."

"NOOOOO, LENALEE, DON'T GO! NOOOO!"

Komui's cries of distress faded behind them as Allen and Lenalee went up the stairs. At the third floor, Lenalee turned to Allen and said, "I'm sorry about my brother. He's just a tad overprotective of me."

"It's okay. I think it's nice that he cares so much about you." Allen could see that Komui really cared for his sister, his affection obviously displayed in the way he interacted with her.

"There's a fine line between 'so much' and 'too much,'" Allen heard her mutter, but he could also see the smile on her face as she said it. Her voice returned to its usual pitch as she said, "If he ever bothers you, just tell me and I'll deal with him."

Allen nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." _It did seem like he had it out for me…_

She turned away from him and gestured at the door in front of them. "This is Mother's office. She's waiting for you there. I have to go calm my brother down before he does something stupid. I'll see you around, right?"

"Right. Thank you, Lenalee," Allen called after her as she descended the stairs.

"No problem!" A wave of her hand and she was out of sight.

Allen walked up to the door of the headmistress' office and knocked. A strong, slightly raspy voice announced, "Come in."

He did as he was bid and opened the door to a rectangular room. It was surprisingly homey with decorative armchairs surrounding a wooden table on top of a fluffy rug in the center and a large desk with papers stacked on top towards the window in the back of the room. Bookcases flanked the desk on either side and behind the desk was an aged woman in a chair facing the door Allen had just walked through. The woman wore a purple suit and had her grey hair pulled back in a bun, keeping it out of the way of her eyes that were now watching Allen closely.

"You're Allen?" The woman asked him, not unkindly in her rough voice.

"Yes, ma'am," Allen replied. "Did Master tell you that I was coming?"

She snorted. "Tell me? He practically forced me to take you in - not that I was going to refuse, but that man wouldn't know manners if they bit him in the ass."

_That does fairly sum up his way of talking to people…_ "I'm sorry if we've inconvenienced you in any way, ma'am." Allen bowed at his waist.

"Oh, straighten up, boy, you've done nothing to make trouble for me. And call me Mother, didn't Lenalee tell you that?"

Righting himself, Allen said, "Yes, Mother. I met Lenalee downstairs and she led me up to your office."

"She's a good girl, though I can't say the same for that brother of hers. Why I let him teach here is beyond me, to be honest," she muttered. "I don't have anyone else that can take his place for teaching those classes, but if I manage to, oh, is he in trouble…"

Allen shifted slightly on his feet. "Master said I would be attending this Academy from now on."

Mother coughed and refocused on Allen. "Oh, yes, that's the plan. You'll be staying here for as long as you need to learn whatever you need. Whatever you decide to do after is up to you, but that's a long ways away, so don't bother yourself about it yet."

_Well, that's good, because I have absolutely no idea what I want to do. _"Master said I'd be living in the Academy while I stayed here…"

"Ah, yes. He's informed you rather well, considering the kind of person that Cross is." Mother rolled her eyes and Allen had to smile a bit. "You'll be living in the dorms with the other students while you study here. You'll have a roommate, since I don't have a room for a single person empty right now. When one opens up, I'll tell you and you can move if you want."

Allen nodded. "What kinds of classes will I be attending?"

Mother waved her hand. "Oh, the general requirements all new students have to take before they decide what they want to set themselves to for the rest of their lives. Or a good chunk of it, anyway. Are you adept at math, languages, history and the like?"

"Yes, Mother. Because I've constantly travelled and lived with Master for years, I've learned about different things." It wasn't a lie; merely a simplification of the truth of all the pain and trauma Cross had put Allen through during the years. He shuddered slightly.

She made a small sound of pity and empathy. "Poor boy, stuck with that man for so long. I can't imagine what he's made you do for him and his nasty habits. You're here now though, so don't worry about him." She smiled before continuing, "Now, you'll need a key for your room, a copy of your class schedule, and some time to relax before we set you to the old grindstone, I'm sure. If you go back down to the first floor to the main office, Anita will give you what you need to get started."

"Thank you for everything, Mother." Allen bowed slightly and turned to leave, but paused. "Mother, about the expenses for my attendance here…"

"Don't worry about it. Doubtless you've made enough money fueling the bad habits of that Cross to fund hundreds of students here. It's all taken care of, so just take care of yourself, boy." The nickname resembled a term of endearment coming from her, as opposed to the insult Allen had come to associate the word with when it came from Cross.

Allen nodded and thanked her again before he exited the office and went down the stairs again, nothing that Komui and Lenalee were nowhere to be seen on the second floor. On the ground floor, Allen saw a sign marked 'Main Office' and knocked on the door beneath it before entering with an, "Excuse me."

A black-haired woman sat behind a desk to the right of the door, filing cabinets and papers aplenty behind her chair. She typed away at the computer for a moment before pausing and looking up at Allen with a smile.

"Allen, right? Mother just sent me a message. You'll need your schedule and your room key. Give me a second to print it and I'll fetch the key in the meantime."

"Thank you, Miss Anita."

"Well, aren't you polite?" Anita laughed and spun around in her chair to open one of the filing cabinets beside her. Allen could see labeled boxes filling up the drawer to the top and noted the numbers on the side of each one while Anita sorted through them.

"Now, your room number is two-hundred-fifty-five, and according to this box, you have a roommate. Each of these boxes has three keys when they're for a double room – two for the two people, and one as a spare here in case you both somehow lose yours. Just something to keep in mind in case you do lost yours and your roommate isn't around to open the door for you." Anita handed Allen a key with a ring and a label reading '255' on it. "Your schedule should have finished printing… Aha! Here you go." She pulled a paper from the tray of a printer hidden behind the desk and gave it to Allen.

He scanned it quickly, pleasantly surprised to notice that his classes began at eight in the morning and ended at around half past four in the afternoon. _That's less work time that Master ever allowed me when I was working off his debts for him._ _And I even get an hour for lunch!_

"Today is Sunday, so unfortunately, your classes start tomorrow," Anita informed him sympathetically. "The school term began about a week and a half ago, so you may have some catching up to do. You're starting as a first-year, so the classes shouldn't be too strenuous. Mother seems to believe that you'll manage and she's never wrong, so just do your best and everything will be fine."

Allen nodded, putting the key in his pocket and his schedule in the side of his suitcase.

Anita saw the motion and said, "I almost forgot! You'll need your school uniforms – one for summer and one for winter. Eliade keeps track of them in the storage room labeled 'Clothing,' and she should be there now, so if you go down the hall, she'll set you up with those."

Allen bowed. "Thank you again, Miss Anita."

"Have fun with school!" Anita said in lieu of a goodbye.

* * *

[A/N] - Slow start, yes. Allen's getting situated.

Again, I welcome all reviews! They make my day that much brighter when I read them and smile.

And because of that, I would like to be a bit selfish. If I could get five reviews for this, at the point I see I've received that fifth review, I'll post the second chapter. Please?

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!


	2. Preparing

[A/N] - Welcome back~ Read this please?

Ayup. I said I'd have this out once I got five reviews, but getting five reviews in just about a week? I feel like you're all going to make me work hard on this. Not that I mind; I have fun writing this.

But seriously, thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, alerting, and all the other cool stuff you all do! I see them in my e-mail inbox and it just makes me so happy every time I read them. I also personally thank my anonymous/guest reviewers. You are all neet people. ;3

For those who might be reading Maikaze as well as this... It's. Er. It's going to be updated. Eventually. ;A;

But, and so, here is your second chapter of For the First Time!

Enjoy!

**Recommendations: **Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner that way. Do not read if you do not like shonen-ai.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own D. Gray-man or anything affiliated with it. Bluh. I'm still sad when I read my own disclaimer.

* * *

Walking out, Allen saw a sign with the word 'Clothing' on it over a door further down the hall from the main office and walked over to it before knocking and entering.

A blond-haired woman dressed in a well-fitting blue dress turned towards the door and saw Allen past the racks of uniforms that took up the majority of the space in the room. He saw shelves as high as the roof of the room, all of them full with shoes, ties, and socks. Near the door was a curtained corner which Allen assumed was for changing clothes. He was impressed that someone could keep track of everything in the room.

"Are you Miss Eliade? Miss Anita told me to come here to receive two sets of school uniforms."

"I am. Judging from your height, you should be able to fit into the smaller sizes of the uniforms – and you won't only get a single set of each uniform; they wouldn't last you through the week before you had to do your laundry. Come over here so we can find your size."

Allen set down his suitcase and sighed inwardly. _I hope this doesn't take too long – I don't know how long Master knocked me out, but it must have been for at least a day because I'm getting hungry…_

He made his way over to where Eliade was sorting through a rack of boy's uniforms. She took out a few different hangers laden with blazers, shirts, vests, and pants and shooed him towards the curtained fitting corner after putting all the hooks of the hangers on his arms.

"Try them on and see which ones fit best. Then we'll tailor them to you so you don't look like you're swimming in them."

Allen did so and came out after a few minutes with the ones that fit on one arm and the ones that didn't on the other. Eliade nodded and took the ill-fitting ones to put them back on the rack. She returned and said, "Change into one of the shirts, a vest, and a pair of the pants."

Once more, Allen pulled the curtain around him and changed out of his own clothes and into the cool, starched uniform of a white, long-sleeved, collared shirt, a grey button-up vest with the school's crest on the left side, and long black pants with a black belt. He pulled the curtain back to allow Eliade to look him over with a critical eye.

"You're so skinny; I'll have to make a few more modifications, but that's fine." She proceeded to pin the shirt, vest, and pants in different places and make small marks with a pencil in the fabric. "While you're in these, let's get you some shoes. Here in the Academy, both girls and boys wear boots with the uniform. What kind is up to you, so look around and pick whichever looks best to you. I'll find the size once you pick the style."

She pushed him in the direction of the shoe shelves where rows of boots were polished and for display. He looked through them quickly, not sure what he'd prefer, until his eyes fell upon a black pair of boots with a large zipper running from the middle of the foot up to the top where it folded over once. Allen estimated that it would come up to just below his knees.

Eliade noticed his pause and said, "That pair, you'll have to wear them with your pants tucked into them. The zippers make it easier for them to fit in. Do you like those?" Allen nodded. "I'll measure your feet and find you two pairs, so you don't wear them out too quickly." She did so quickly and efficiently, setting down two shoe boxes with the boots inside and another two that Allen wasn't quite sure about.

"Now all that's left is the blazer and your ties," she announced. "What you're wearing now, including the boots, is the summer uniform, which is what you'll be wearing for the next several weeks. The blazer is part of the winter uniform and is meant to keep you warm while also identifying you as one of the Academy's students. You'll be able to wear the same pants, but all the winter shoes are standardized for the students. Those are what're inside those other two boxes here."

He nodded in understanding, even though he was getting tired of being dressed up like a doll._ I appreciate everything she's telling me, but I'm getting really hungry… Stupid Master never took my well-being into consideration whenever he dragged me around, though, so I shouldn't be surprised._

"Your blazer can go over the shirt of your summer uniform or you can pick your own shirt to wear underneath." She produced a few hangars with jackets hanging from them seemingly out of nowhere and pushed him into Allen's hands. "Try those on. You're a first-year, right?" Allen nodded again. "Your ties will be red. They're not so much actual ties as much as pieces of ribbon that go around the collar of your shirt or the crest of your blazer, but they tell other people what year you're in – as practical, general knowledge. I'll get them for you while you try those on."

Tiredly, Allen retreated to the curtained corner to try on the blazers, deciding on one that fell a bit past his waist and covered a couple inches of his neck. Black and white edging decorated the ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the jacket. Four ornate silver buttons held the jacket closed and rested on a white strip of fabric running down the middle of the blazer. Eliade nodded upon seeing his choice, pointed out where he would tie the ribbons on the crest come winter, pinned it in the places the deemed fit, and allowed him to change back into his own clothes. She set the pile of clothing on top of the shoe boxes and placed four red ribbons on top of the entire thing.

"Now, I think I've kept you waiting long enough. It's well into lunch time now, but the dining hall is still open and I'm sure Jerry will be happy to make you something to eat. If you exit this building, it'll be in the next building to your left. Once you finish eating and get to your room, I'll have had your clothes altered and sent there already. You can leave your suitcase here; I'll send it with your clothes so you don't have to drag it around."

Allen couldn't help but smile at the prospect of food. "Thank you for your help, Miss Eliade," he said courteously.

Eliade gave him a quick smile. "Bye."

He was about to step through the door into the hallway before he paused and turned back to Eliade. "You wouldn't happen to have a pair of gloves that you'd be able to include with the uniform, would you? I'd rather not be stared at for this…" He held up his left arm as explanation, the long sleeve of his shirt falling down to expose the blackened, scarred skin beneath.

Her eyes showed curiosity and pity as she nodded. "I'll give you a pair now and a couple more with the rest of your things."

Allen thanked her, accepting a pair of white gloves and putting them on before he left the main building behind him and walked to the building across the courtyard to the left. There were more students about now, some of them carrying food and lunch boxes out with them to sit in the grass or on the benches. Allen's stomach growled and he laughed at himself a bit, entering the left-hand building labeled as the East Wing by a golden plaque on its exterior next to the door at the top of another set of steps.

The dining hall wasn't hard to find, with students going in without food and coming out with food constantly. The hall itself was filled with lacquered wooden tables made to resemble picnic tables and benches, as well as the students that sat on them, enjoying their food and other students' company. Overhead, chandeliers wrought with iron and glass kept the hall well-lit with bright light, held fast to the roof by strong chains. Towards the back of the hall, Allen spied the kitchen, where a relatively short line of students was moving past the counter where a large, dark-skinned man with vibrant, lavender hair seemed to be taking orders and producing food fairly quickly. He joined the line and waited for his turn.

"Okay, next!" The man flourished a stir-fry pan and looked at Allen closely, peering over the edge of his sunglasses. "Oh, we've got a new one here! I haven't seen you before. What would you like, mister? I'll make you anything you want!"

"Erm…" Allen was slightly surprised by the man's flamboyantly happy manner, but collected himself quickly enough. "Then, I'll have a plate of tuna rolls, two omelets with rice and ketchup, two plates of curried rice, three bowls of miso soup, two hamburgers, fried chicken, chocolate cake, a fruit tart, and a glass of milk… please." Allen smiled apologetically, adding the courtesy at the end.

Jerry seemed shell-shocked for a moment – as much so as the people who had lined up behind Allen while he'd listed everything he felt like eating off of his fingers. He adjusted his sunglasses and leaned forward, wondering aloud, "Are you sure you can eat all that, mister?"

"Yes, sir." Allen paused. "Ah, but if it's too much to make, you don't have to bother yourself to do it…"

The chef waved his hands in front of him in a 'stop right there' gesture. "Oh no no no no, of course I'll do it, you polite mister! What's your name?"

"Allen, sir."

"Allen – what a wonderful name! You can call me Jerry – sit back for a moment and watch me work my magic!"

And Allen did. He watched in awe as plate after bowl after dish of food appeared before him on the counter in a short amount of time. The glimmer in his stormy grey eyes was not missed by Jerry, who grinned and served up Allen's final request – a glass of cold milk.

"Order up! Enjoy, Allen!"

Allen smiled widely and bowed. "Thank you very much!"

It took Allen three trips to get all of the dishes to an empty table, people watching and whispering all the while, some laughing, some staring, some just shaking their heads in disbelief. He ignored them for the most part and sat down before his meal – essentially a buffet to anyone looking in.

"Thanks for the food," Allen murmured before digging in - a habit he'd picked up during his travels with Cross in Japan. He pulled something from every plate before him and piled them into an empty bowl before downing it in a couple of bites, redoing the cycle over and over at such a rapid speed that people couldn't help but think that it was a wonder that he didn't choke himself.

Allen couldn't have been happier.

The plates seemed to clear themselves after ten minutes. Allen downed his glass of milk and let his back relax a bit, smiling contentedly. He gathered up the various dishes and his cup and deposited them in a bin labeled 'dishes' next to Jerry on the counter.

"Thank you for the meal, Jerry – it was delicious!" Allen told the chef, who replied with a grin of his own.

"Anytime, Allen! Come back soon!"

Allen waved at the enthusiastic chef and exited the dining hall, weaving around and trying to avoid running into the people who were coming and going. Despite his best efforts, once he tried to get out of the East Wing, he bumped into a girl and knocked her to the ground.

Allen scrambled to help her up. "I'm so sorry, are you okay – Lenalee?"

The dark-haired girl sat on the floor, surprised by the hand offered to her. "Allen! How did your meeting with Mother go?" She accepted Allen's offered hand and dusted her skirt off with a couple swipes from her hands.

"It went well – I'll be starting my classes tomorrow."

"That's great! Which ones do you have?"

"I'm actually not quite sure – I glanced at my schedule when Miss Anita in the main office handed it to me, but I don't remember exactly what it said. It's in my suitcase right now, and Miss Eliade said she'd send it to my room in the dormitory by the time I finished eating." Allen's own statement gave him a reason to pause. "…Lenalee, where is the dormitory?"

"Oh! It's actually right above us – more convenient for us to eat our meals on time, right? The gym and all of the classrooms are in the West Wing, across the courtyard. Everything else is in the North Wing." Lenalee led him to a flight of stairs near the dining hall. "The floor we're on now doesn't have any rooms, so the one-hundred rooms start on the next floor, the two-hundreds on the floor above those, and so on. The guys' rooms are the one-hundreds and two-hundreds, and the girls' rooms are the three-hundreds and four-hundreds. Which room are you in?"

"Erm, let me check… Miss Anita gave me the key and it's somewhere…" Allen patted his pockets until he felt the edge of the key against his hand. "Here it is. I'm in room two-hundred-fifty-five."

"Two-fifty-five," Lenalee repeated, thinking. "That seems familiar… Oh! That's Lavi's room!"

"Lavi?" Allen used the unfamiliar name as a question, tilting his head quizzically.

"Yeah – he's in my year, and he's one of my good friends. I'm sure you two will get along!" Lenalee paused for a moment, seeming to search Allen's clothing for something and looking slightly puzzled when she didn't find it.

"Is there something wrong?" Allen asked.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong. I was just trying to check – you're a first-year too, right? I was looking for the tie, but you don't have the uniform on yet, so I couldn't really tell for sure."

_So that's what Miss Eliade was talking about when she mentioned the ties. _Allen nodded. "Yes, I am."

Lenalee smiled. "That's great! Maybe we'll have some classes together tomorrow. Can I walk with you up to your room? Girls aren't really allowed on the boys' floors, but if it's a short visit, no one really pays attention."

"If you say so, I suppose it's not a problem." Allen shrugged with a small smile, starting up the stairs with Lenalee following behind. "What happened between you and your brother after I left? I didn't see you on the second floor after I left Mother's office."

Lenalee waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, nothing special. I just told him he was overreacting as usual and to leave you alone because you didn't do anything to deserve that kind of treatment."

"Thank you for that – I can't imagine having him for a teacher if he had a grudge against me for being associated with you." Allen was sure that her brother's bias towards her male acquaintances caused her a lot of problems, to say the least.

She made a noise of agreement. "I'd feel bad too… Are these yours?"

Lenalee pointed towards a pile of stuff in front of the door with a golden plaque displaying the number '255.' Allen could see his suitcase next to a pile of shoe boxes and a few different sets of uniforms folded neatly over everything with the red ribbons placed on top.

He nodded. "Miss Eliade works quickly. I wouldn't have expected her to finish all of the work on the clothes before I got here."

Lenalee crouched down to take a closer look at the clothes on top of the suitcase. "I'm kind of curious to see what you picked for your uniform. Eliade lets everyone choose what they want to wear as long as it comes from the clothing storage room. I guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow then."

Allen pulled the room key from his pocket once more to insert it into the lock on the doorknob. He twisted it once, allowing the door to swing inward to reveal a rather large room. He saw what appeared to be a bathroom hidden behind an orange curtain on the right side of the room. There were two beds, two desks, two bookshelves, two nightstands, two closets, with one of each on either side of the room. The only difference between the two halves was decoration – the left side was completely barren, save for the blue pillow and comforter on the bed, while the right side seemed to have been splashed with varying shades of red and orange.

Allen was a bit amused by the contrast. "I'll assume that Lavi likes bright colors then?"

"Yeah – he likes orange the most though. That's weird; he should be in here. I was looking for him earlier, but he wasn't here then, either. He must have stepped out for a bit." Lenalee had poked her head through the door to take a quick glance around the room. "Well, I'm sure you'll get to meet him before you start classes tomorrow. I'm going to head upstairs to my own room. Hey, if you want, we can go to the West Wing together with Lavi in the morning before classes start – there's a coffee stand in front that opens up every day and they make really good cappuccinos that are great for waking you up in the morning. My roommate works there so we can get a discount if we go while she's on her shift. What do you say?"

"Of course. I'd be glad to go," Allen replied.

"Great! Then I'll meet you in front of this Wing at around a quarter past seven?"

"Sounds perfect. I'll tell Lavi when he gets back."

"Alright then – see you tomorrow, Allen!"

Allen waved goodbye to Lenalee while she went up the stairs, then turned back to the room in front of him, gathering up his clothes and his suitcase and dragging the whole lot inside the room. He set the suitcase on the ground and unzipped it to reveal his own clothing. Pulling everything out, he opened the closet and started hanging up his uniforms and putting his own clothes in the drawers beneath. Once he was done with that, he stowed his suitcase underneath his bed and flopped down on top of the blue bedspread, turning on his side to face the wall. He yawned involuntarily, holding a hand up to his mouth to cover it out of habit.

_I guess I'm more tired than I thought… _Allen looked to the nightstand between his bed and the wall where a silver analog alarm clock sat, displaying the time to be a little past four o' clock. _It's too early to go to bed… But maybe a nap wouldn't hurt._

Before Allen's sleepy mind could fully complete the thought, the silver-haired boy found himself being lulled into sleep by the faint ticking of the clock by his bed.

* * *

[A/N] - I think we're getting out of the gate, now.

This was so well-received, I am going to be a bit selfish once more. Those who are going to be flaming me for being a review hog... I apologize beforehand.

But if I get another five reviews - the same condition from the last chapter - I'll post the third chapter.

It works well for both of us, I'd like to think. /shot.

Thank you for taking the time to read and review and do all the awesome stuff you all do!

Have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!

Oh, and please tell me if there is a typo or something of the like. I'm a bit too tired to check once more for them, so I'll rely on my readers as spell-check a bit.


	3. Starting

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

All my reviewers know that I start my review replies with that Hi~ - and hopefully they and all my readers also know how grateful I am to them for taking the time to read, review, and do all that awesome stuff ff-net lets you do concerning the story and the author. You all motivated me to finish writing and editing this in the middle of the week when my workload is at its heaviest. ouo

But I really am so grateful. Thank you all so much! I hope you all know just how much you mean to me. ;u;

But anyway, in addition to the word 'thank you,' you all get the third chapter of For the First Time!

Enjoy!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size - I personally think it makes it look cleaner. Don't read if you don't like shonen-ai.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own D. Gray-man or anything affiliated with it. Bluh. ;n;

* * *

Allen's eyes snapped open and he stretched quickly, rubbing the excess sleep from his eyes. _I could have sworn I heard a noise in here… Did my uniforms fall off the hangers in the closet?_ He swung his feet off the bed and stood up, using the wall to support himself slightly while blood rushed from his head to the rest of his body. He groped for the light switch, a small noise of triumph sounding when he flicked it on, illuminating the entire room in soft, white light. Making his way to the closet, he opened the double doors, noting that everything was still where he'd left it about… five hours ago, according to his clock. Now nine o' clock, the sun had set, darkening the room while Allen had been sleeping.

_But I know I heard some kind of thumping noise. A mouse? Maybe it came from upstairs? _Allen pondered, wondering whether or not his hearing was really as good as he thought it was. He shrugged, closing his closet and moving to turn off the light near his still-absent roommate's bed.

A hand shot out from the shadows beneath Lavi's bed, snaring Allen's ankle in a tight grip. Allen yelped, tripping slightly and falling back onto his tailbone while staring wide-eyed at the hand that encircled his ankle. He kicked at the source of the hand, to no avail. He tried to pull his leg back, succeeding in doing so, but also pulling a teenage boy out from under the bed as well.

Allen blinked. The boy had sleepy emerald-green eyes – or rather, eye, for his right eye was covered by a black eyepatch. A green, patterned bandanna held back a mess of bright red hair, which the boy was now scratching at questioningly. _He can't really be…_

"… Lavi?"

The boy yawned, rubbing at a spot beneath his hair. Allen supposed that was where the thumping noise he'd heard earlier had come from - from the other boy hitting his head in the process of waking up. "That's me."

"... Why were you sleeping underneath the bed?" _As opposed to on top of it like normal people would?_

Lavi seemed fully awake now and seemed to be struggling to make his way out from under his bed. Allen offered him a hand, which Lavi took with a "Thanks," before sitting down on his orange bedspread. "I actually can't think of a reason that won't make me seem like I'm nuts right now, so ask me again later and I'm sure I'll have an answer for you." Lavi grinned infectiously at Allen, causing the silver-haired boy to smile as well.

Allen had half an inking to say that he already thought Lavi was a bit weird, but instead he took a step towards where the boy was seated on his vibrantly colored comforter and extended his hand. "I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Allen Walker, and I'm your new roommate."

"Likewise – I'm Lavi Bookman, but Lavi is just fine." Lavi took Allen's hand and shook it firmly, grinning all the while. "I didn't formally introduce myself, at least, but man, I didn't know people still shook hands! Do we do that when we're this young? Maybe you just act like an old man, all stiff and polite like that."

Allen wasn't sure whether to take that for a compliment or an insult. "Er, thank you?"

Lavi glanced at him and smiled apologetically. "No, no, there's nothing wrong with that. I just haven't seen someone act like that before when they met someone for the first time. It's actually kind of cool." He stretched out and rolled over onto his bed, hands under his head while he watched Allen get ready to sleep for the rest of the night.

"That reminds me," Allen said while he went through his sets of uniforms in the closet, trying to pick one out for the next day, "Lenalee asked me if you and I were interested in getting coffee tomorrow morning before class starts at a quarter past seven. Would you like to go with us?"

"You've met Lenalee already? No fair! Why does she get to meet you before I do when I'm your roommate?"

"Because you were asleep under the bed?" Allen shot a glance over his shoulder towards the guilty party.

Lavi pouted, then laughed, sitting up and deciding to get ready for a proper sleep himself. "Mean! That sounds awesome though – I'm definitely in."

Allen smiled. "Great. I'm going to borrow the bathroom for a bit; do you mind?"

Lavi waved him off. "Nah, go for it – don't use my toothbrush though, that's gross!"

"I'll try not to." Allen rolled his eyes and pushed past the vibrantly-colored curtain after pulling a bag of basic necessities from the suitcase under his bed. He had a brief mental image of Lavi under the bed getting hit with the suitcase after he pushed it back beneath the bedframe and smiled to himself a bit.

A few minutes and Allen was back out, carrying his day clothes under his arm and having changed in favor of a white long-sleeved t-shirt and black sweatpants. Lavi had changed into his own set of sleep clothes, consisting of a black long-sleeved t-shirt and loose black pants. He removed his headband to let his hair fall down and allowed the strands to brush his shoulders, but did not take off his eyepatch.

"I've finished with the bathroom," Allen informed Lavi.

Lavi hopped up from his bed. "Alright then. If you're going to sleep now, I'll see you in the morning." He moved towards the bathroom.

Allen nodded. "Good night, Lavi."

"Night, Allen."

Allen stored his clothes in an empty part of his closet and went to his bed, drawing the covers up around him and turning to face the wall and his clock. The dial read half past nine – not a late time to go to bed, by Allen's standards, but actually a tad early. His body didn't agree with his mind though, and he felt his eyelids drifting shut once more.

* * *

A rather loud, obnoxious noise managed to rouse Allen early the next morning.

The sound of people down the hall thumping past his room? No – it was too early for that, Allen noted after a quick glance at his bedside clock.

The sound of his alarm clock going off before he'd managed to turn it off? No – actually, Allen remembered then that he'd forgotten to set it the previous night.

The sound of Lavi snoring?

Ah. There it was.

Allen turned on his side to glare sleepily at the offending red-haired boy, who was still blissfully, completely asleep, and as such didn't notice that Allen was trying to use his eyes to drill an alternative pathway for the air in Lavi's lungs to escape. _How did I not hear this when he was sleeping under the bed?_ Allen sighed, sitting up and scratching the back of his head, glancing at his clock to note the time – six o' clock.

_That's good – I'll have enough time to prepare for class before I have to wake Lavi up and meet Lenalee._

He nodded to himself and dropped his feet to the floor - softly so he didn't prematurely wake Lavi, no matter that the other boy had done so to him. He performed his morning rituals of brushing his teeth, taking a quick shower, and combing through his damp hair with his fingers – the act of using an actual brush was rather futile as far as Allen was concerned, since his hair always ended up sticking out in random places. He looked at himself in the mirror a while longer, his eyes following the red lines of the scar that marred the left side of his face.

He sighed and left the bathroom to return after a moment with his uniform in hand. A quick change of clothes and Allen had to admit he looked rather professional, not to mention that the clothes fit well. _I have to remember to go back and thank Eliade again for her work sometime. _Allen nodded to himself and went back to his closet to pull out the boots and tie that were the final parts of his uniform. He tucked his pants into the boots like Eliade had told him, zipping them up and tying the red ribbon around the collar of his shirt. A final check of himself in the bathroom mirror made Allen realize something.

… _I'm acting a lot like a girl, aren't I? _His shoulders sagged and he gripped the bathroom sink, head falling and a slightly self-mocking smile appearing on his face. _First I'm an old man, now I'm a teenage girl. I guess I have more to worry about than I thought._

Allen made his way over to Lavi's bed, where Lavi was still sleeping peacefully, though he had stopped snoring. He poked the red-haired boy's shoulder, then moved on to shaking him slightly when Lavi did not wake.

"Lavi," Allen called out. "Lavi! You have to wake up and get ready so we can meet Lenalee on time."

"Mm… Five… more minutes…" Lavi turned over, pulling his shoulder out of Allen's grip and tangling himself in the orange comforter even more.

Allen sighed. "You don't have five more minutes. I'm not sure how long it takes you to get ready in the morning, but if we're to meet Lenalee on time, you have to get up now." He tried shaking Lavi's shoulder again, with no effect except making Lavi mumble incoherently.

He was getting rather tired of Lavi's lack of response by that point, so Allen clenched his hand into a fist and gave Lavi a solid whack on the head.

"OW!" In a flash, Lavi was sitting upright, clutching his head and cowering slightly. "What was that for, Allen?"

Allen shifted back slightly, almost feeling guilty – almost, but not quite. "You refused to get up and I didn't want to be responsible if we were late meeting Lenalee, so I took more… aggressive measures?"

Lavi glared at Allen half-heartedly, relaxing and finally giving a grin. "Sorry about that – apparently it's really difficult to wake me up in the morning since I sleep like a log the entire time. We're meeting Lenalee outside this Wing, right?"

"That's what she told me." Allen nodded.

"I'll be out in a while, so I'll meet you and her outside in a few." Lavi stood up and made his way to the bathroom. He looked over his shoulder back at Allen. "You look good in that uniform, by the way – I'm glad I'm not the only person that likes those kinds of boots." He gave Allen a grin and a thumbs-up before disappearing behind the bathroom curtain.

Allen smiled slightly and left the room, picking up his schedule from the still-empty desk on his side of the room on the way out. When he turned around to close the door behind him, he noticed a black schoolbag next to the doorframe with a note taped to it. He picked the bag up and read it to himself.

_Allen, this will be your schoolbag to use during class. I asked Anita to drop it off for you early this morning. I've already had it stocked with the materials you'll need for the classes you're taking, besides your textbooks. You'll be able to pick those up from the library whenever you have the time. It's close to the classrooms, but ask someone if you can't find it. - Mother_

He folded up the note, silently thanking Mother for her generosity and thoughtfulness and continued down the stairs. Outside the building, he didn't see very many people around, but one person that was, he recognized. "Lenalee!"

"Good morning, Allen!" Lenalee stood at the foot of the stairs leading up to the East Wing, waving up to Allen.

"I hope you haven't been waiting too long."

"No, I just got here – where's Lavi?"

"He woke up a bit later than I did, so he'll be out soon."

Lenalee smiled. "He wouldn't wake up at all is what you're saying, right?"

Allen laughed. "Something like that."

"I swear, he sleeps so much, it's like he's made it into a hobby or something. You know sleeping too much is unhealthy for you, right? That doesn't seem to bother him at all – he just goes ahead and sleeps the day away on the weekends. It's all I can do to bang on the door and make him wake up without having people staring at me like I'm nuts." Lenalee sighed, the smile still on her face. "Oh, you're in your uniform now! It looks good on you – I like your boots. I don't think Eliade had any like those for girls when I got my uniform from her."

Allen thanked Lenalee for the compliment and was about to say something but forgot what it was when an arm made its way around his neck and pulled him backwards away from her. He tilted his head back to see Lavi with his headband and eyepatch, grinning widely.

"Lavi!"

"Good morning, Lavi," Lenalee greeted him. "Well, don't you two look like best friends now?" She giggled while Allen struggled to free himself from the taller boy's grip.

"Morning, Lenalee. We're definitely best friends now, my new bruise and I." Lavi nodded his agreement while Allen smiled faintly at Lenalee's confusion.

"He wouldn't wake up so…" Allen trailed off, managing to wrestle himself out of Lavi's grasp.

Lenalee understood and laughed aloud. "Well, coffee is good for headaches – I'm not so sure about bruises, but let's get some anyway."

They made their way to the coffee stand across the courtyard in front of the West Wing. So early in the morning, there weren't any other students around except for the one girl behind the coffee stand, to whom Lenalee waved cheerily.

"Miranda! Good morning!"

"Hey Miranda," Lavi said to the brown-haired girl.

"Ah! G-good morning, Lenalee, Lavi. Who is y-your new friend?" Miranda gave Allen a shaky smile.

Allen bowed and returned her smile with one of his own. "My name is Allen Walker. It's nice to meet you, Miss Miranda."

"O-oh, Miranda is j-just fine. L-likewise, Allen. Would you all like some coffee?"

Lenalee and Lavi responded with a resounding "Yes!"

"But we might want to take it to go..." Lenalee glanced at a watch on her wrist. "Lavi woke up later than we expected so I don't think we'll have time to sit out here and finish them before class starts. Today is Allen's first day of classes so it'd be better for him to make a good impression."

"Guilty." Lavi laughed. At that point, Allen noticed that Lavi wore a uniform similar to his, with the exception of his boots, which had a series of buckles and black straps running up the entire length of the knee-high boots. Allen thought they suited him well.

"Okay then. W-what would you like to drink?"

"A cappuccino for me." Lenalee thought for a moment, then added, "A bit of extra milk, as well."

"Cinnamon latte with a shot of vanilla!" Lavi seemed excited about his coffee.

"Just a cup of black coffee, please."

Lenalee and Lavi looked at Allen as if he'd spontaneously grown a second head.

"Are you sure about that, Allen? There's so much stuff here to try, and it's all good, you know," Lenalee said.

"Yeah, it's your first day of classes too – don't you think you'll need something extra to get through the day?" Lavi seemed more concerned about Allen's choice of coffee rather than his workload.

Allen raised his hands in a 'slow down' gesture. "It's okay; I don't normally drink coffee, so this will be more than enough for me."

Lenalee frowned slightly. "Do you not like coffee? You didn't have to force yourself to come out so early, then..."

Allen shook his head. "No, no! I just haven't made a habit out of drinking coffee, is all. It's refreshing to drink once in a while." He tried to appease her with a smile.

She and Lavi still seemed doubtful but rested their cases. In the meantime, Miranda got their orders out quickly, handing them their steaming cups of coffee in turn.

"A cappuccino for Lenalee, a cinnamon latte for Lavi, and black coffee for Allen – UWAH!"

In the middle of handing Allen his coffee, the sleeve of Miranda's shirt caught on a corner of the counter, jerking her hand and causing her to spill the cup of hot coffee on Allen's hand. A cry of surprise escaped Allen as he quickly drew his hand away from the scalding liquid.

"Oh no - are you okay, Allen?" Lenalee asked, concern evident on her face.

"Did it burn you?" Lavi watched Allen check over his hand and arm, a small frown on the shorter boy's face.

Miranda seemed on the verge of tears. "Oh my – A-Allen, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry, this is all my fault, I should have been more careful, if only I had –"

"It's alright, Miranda. I was just surprised." Allen held up his gloved left hand, showing her the pristine white of his uniform shirt's sleeve. "See? It didn't even get on me." He smiled in an attempt to calm her down. "I'd be grateful if you could make me another cup. Would it bother you?"

"N-no, no, I'd be happy to make you another cup!" She did so, safely handing it to Allen without any mishaps.

"How much are all of our cups, Miranda?" Lenalee asked.

"Oh, p-please, just take them. Free of ch-charge." Miranda smiled, shaking her head when Lenalee moved to pull her wallet from her skirt pocket.

"We can't do that," Lavi protested.

"That's not fair to you, Miranda." Allen frowned.

"Please accept it. As m-my apology."

The three couldn't change her mind, so in the end, they accepted it and said goodbye after chatting with her for several minutes, walking into the West Hall with their coffee.

"Classes are going to start in about ten minutes," Lenalee noted. "Allen, do you know what classes you have in which rooms?"

"I can't say off the top of my head, but I have my schedule with me," Allen answered, pulling the sheet of paper from a pocket in his schoolbag. Lenalee and Lavi leaned in so they could read the typed print.

"Hey, you've got history and general physical education with me," Lavi noticed.

"I have math and science at the same time as you too," Lenalee added.

Lavi's eye searched up and down the paper. "Wait, you have a free period? Allen, you're lucky!"

Allen squinted, focusing on the blank next to the time period where there should have been the title of a class. "I suppose I don't have anything then. What do I do if I don't have a class?"

"Well, you could go to the library and do work or just head back to your room and take a nap," Lenalee said. Lavi got a dreamy look in his eyes when she mentioned taking a nap. "Maybe you can visit other classes if the teachers don't mind."

Allen nodded when a four-tone bell rang out through the hall. He looked around to see students walking past them, most of them entering a classroom or walking farther down the hall to reach a different room.

"That was the bell warning us that we have a few minutes to get to class," Lenalee informed him. "If another bell like that rings before you get to your classroom, you're marked late."

Lavi started down the hall away from them. "My class is over here first, so I'll see you both later."

"See you, Lavi," Allen and Lenalee called after him.

Lenalee turned to Allen. "Follow me – I'll show you where our first class is."

Allen nodded and starting walking after Lenalee. A small smile crossed his face at the same time a thought crossed his mind.

_School doesn't seem too bad… yet._

* * *

[A/N] - I'll always ask for you to read this, if you're wondering. It's the easiest way for me to get information across to you as a reader apart from telling you to _check my profile daily for updates on the status of a story and my life as a way to gauge when the next chapter might come out_ - which I also recommend, but no one seems to listen to me.

Anywayyy. Allen met Lavi! I hope you're all satisfied now, humhum.

... No, what am I saying, if I'm not satisfied, you're not completely satisfied either. Just wait for more to come!

**_Super special gigantic hugs and thank you's to my reviewers Hiroshi-Jino, Synk, A Flame's Embers, and Loud and Clear 524 for such awesome replies to my replies to their reviews. You all cheered me up so much when I was drowning in my schoolwork. Thank you so much!_**

With such positive reception to the first two chapters, allow me to be a hog again, since I have faith that you all can do this in no time. I mean, you all shot past the ten-reviewer mark and then some so...

Ten reviews before the next chapter?

I'm sorry for being greedy, but thank you again, so much!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!


	4. Learning

[A/N] - Hi~ You already know I'll ask you to read this, right?

Right! Anyhow, hello again! Despite not having reached the review limit I imposed in the previous chapter on your poor souls, I have to say that I missed writing this story. I also got a couple shoves in the back from some of my wonderful reviewers who motivated me to write a bit more for this story.

This was kind of on short notice because of that, as well as all the schoolwork I've been saddled with, and so it is shorter than the other chapters so far. Hopefully that doesn't impede your enjoyment of the story, because I had a lot of fun writing it! And that's what it's all about, right? /shot.

No, I'm kidding. Please enjoy the fourth chapter of For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner that way.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own D. Gray-man in any way, shape, or form. If I did, there would be more canon pairings tailored to my liking. -coughthispairingcough- ouo.

* * *

Allen thought that the school day didn't last all that long. Before he'd known it, his first two classes and free period were over and he was eating lunch with Lavi and Lenalee, both of whom gawked at him when he smiled at Jerry and asked for a massive amount of food for his lunch. Despite their amazement, they helped him carry the food so they'd be able to eat outside underneath one of the large trees in the courtyard.

"Hey Allen," Lenalee asked in between bites of her sandwich, "what hobbies do you have?"

"Hobbies?" Allen lowered his plate of curried rice to the table and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"You know, something you do for fun to pass the time," Lavi elaborated for her.

Lenalee nodded in agreement. "Right. For example, my hobbies are running and cooking. Sometimes, I ask Jerry if I can borrow the kitchen so I can make something for fun."

"And mine are reading and sleeping," Lavi chipped in, grinning. "Though I'm sure you figured the last one out already."

Lenalee wrinkled her nose. "You mean you really consider that your hobby? I said that and I was joking, but I didn't know you really thought so."

Allen put his hand to his chin, resting his elbow on his knee where his legs were crossed on the grass. _Free time… Master never really allowed me any when I was with him. Normally I just worked to pay off his absurdly large debts. I don't think working counts as a hobby though. _Allen thought back to some of the things he had to do to pay off Cross' debts that he hadn't minded doing and immediately thought of something.

"Well…" Lenalee and Lavi returned their attention to Allen, pausing in their friendly bickering. "I guess I prefer to play cards, then."

"Cards, eh?" Lavi smirked. "Do you gamble?" Allen nodded without thinking. "That makes it more interesting! Remind me to find a deck of cards when we get back to the room."

The four-tone bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Allen stood up, stacks of empty dishes in hand.

Lenalee waved at them and jogged off in the direction of the classrooms after saying, "I can't be late to my class or my brother – er, my teacher will get mad at me. See you later!" Lavi and Allen waved after her.

After lunch, Allen had his last two classes of the day – history and general physical education – with Lavi. History was rather interesting, made more so by the fact that Lavi was actually quite knowledgeable about what was being taught and could never keep himself from adding his own information to what Allen heard from the teacher.

"See, 'cause I've decided to be a historian when I get out of here, I make reading a hobby and use it to learn more than the teacher tells me," Lavi whispered to Allen, explaining himself for his wealth of knowledge.

After history, general physical education forced both Lavi and Allen to change from their comparably comfortable uniforms into plain, slightly starchy white t-shirts and black shorts with the school's crest printed on them. The exercises they did in the gym weren't all too strenuous, Allen thought, compared to what Cross had made him do in the way of clearing the man's debts with dangerous people.

Lavi was impressed by Allen's subtle show of strength and stamina and asked, "How'd you end up like this?"

Allen laughed nervously. "There were… circumstances that required me to be able to defend myself, so I trained myself before I arrived here."

"'Circumstances,' you say? Sounds dangerous. You'll have to tell me about them sometime. Promise, okay?" Lavi thumped Allen on the back with his hand, grinning all the while.

Allen rolled his eyes. "If you say so."

A week passed by in that fashion of hanging out with Lenalee and Lavi during the day, doing his homework in the evening, and getting a good night's sleep at night. It was Sunday once more, the one day of the week when there were no scheduled classes, allowing the students a break and a chance to relax before shoving their noses back into the books and studying for their classes during the following week.

As far as Lavi was concerned, Sunday might as well have been that following week.

Allen watched amusedly while Lavi pored over a select few of his textbooks at his desk, mumbling to himself and cursing their history teacher every once in a while. That teacher had announced to them the previous day that there would be an exam on Monday, testing them to see whether or not they'd actually been paying attention during class. Allen understood why Lavi might be worried about an exam, but he also thought that the red-haired boy was going a little overboard.

"Lavi, if you press your face any closer to the book, you won't be able to read the words," Allen noted, seeing Lavi's nose only an inch away from the pages of the thick textbook. "Anyway, why are you so worried? If anyone, you'll do the best without studying in the first place."

He looked up at Allen, who was standing over his shoulder with a hand on the back of his chair. There was a slightly crazed look in his eyes that scared Allen a bit, if he was being completely honest. "If I don't do well on this test, it's going to make me have to work harder for the rest of the term. His tests are worth a lot of points and if I don't do well, I'll be doomed to sit at a desk like this forever trying to get my grade back up… Anyway, why aren't you studying? You should be even more worried than I am."

Allen shrugged, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. "I have confidence that I've done my work and studied enough during the week, so I don't think studying like that would help me. Besides, if anyone, I believe that you can get the best grade without studying."

Lavi turned sideways in his chair, resting his elbow on the back and holding up his head. "Why do you say that?"

Allen sighed. "Do you ever listen to yourself talk? During class, you're always adding on to what the teacher is saying, no matter how big or small the event. I'd like to say that you distract me for the majority of the class time, but I find that it doesn't really matter because I learn the material I need to know from you anyway. That shows that you're more than prepared for whatever he'll test us on."

"Do you really think so?" Lavi seemed surprised by Allen's admission of his knowledge.

The silver-haired boy nodded. "You'll do fine."

Lavi sat quietly for a moment. Allen, satisfied that he'd talked Lavi out of running himself into the ground through studying, turned to fix the covers on his bed. He'd woken up to the sound of Lavi dumping his textbooks on his desk at a relatively early hour of the morning – for Lavi, at any rate. That Lavi had abandoned his favorite hobby of sleeping in to unconventional hours of the day served to scare Allen considerably.

A pair of thin arms wrapped around Allen's waist and he felt something being tucked under his arm. He looked down and raised an eyebrow questioningly upon seeing Lavi giving him a lopsided grin.

"Thanks, Allen. You're pretty good at cheering people up – even though I was wondering where you were going when you said I run my mouth." Lavi laughed when Allen's face reddened slightly.

"I didn't say that," Allen protested. "I just alluded to the fact that you always talk whenever the teacher talks during class."

"'Alluded to?'" Lavi repeated amusedly. "You always manage to sound like an old man, you know?"

The silver-haired boy could feel his face settling into a pout and resisted the urge to cross his arms and look away like a child – not that he could have crossed his arms anyway, with Lavi's head still underneath his arm. "Well, I'm sorry if I prefer to be polite when I talk to another person."

Lavi drew back, pulling his arms off of Allen's waist. He adopted a hurt tone accompanied by a sad frown and asked, "Am I just 'another person' to you, then?"

Allen wanted to gape. Lavi was being completely unfair, turning him into the villain! "No, of course not! You're my _friend_," Allen stressed the key word, "but it's just a habit that's hard to break. I'm sorry if I offend you or anything like that." _Master always made me speak politely to him, or he'd hit me over the head with something. That, at least, was nothing if not effective as far as my manners were concerned._

Lavi instantly brightened. Allen got the feeling he'd just been played and that Lavi had been acting the entire time. "Really? Great!" He paused and seemed to realize something by the way his visible eye widened. "Hey, you know – I think this is the first time you've called me your friend."

Allen thought about it and, to his surprise, arrived at the same conclusion. _He's right. The past week, I've never said to him, "You're my friend," or anything like that – not to Lenalee, either. I've never had to, since all the people I've met through them just assumed we were friends. _He allowed himself a small but triumphant smile. _How about that, Master? I made some friends. I don't know if they'll have to 'cart my ass around' like you said, but I'll bet you never expected me to make any in the first place._

Lavi noticed Allen's smile and tilted his head, curious. "What's so funny?"

"Just a memory. It doesn't have much to do with you," Allen reassured him.

"So you mean it has something to do with me. What is it?" Allen shook his head, the smile still prominent on his face. "Aw, come on, Allen. You're messing with me now."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Lavi huffed. "Whatever you say. I'll find out one day, though, just you wait."

The following day, Lavi and Allen walked out of their history classroom, both of them feeling relieved and, on Allen's part, somewhat smug. After all of the students in the class had finished with their exam, Lavi had admitted that the test hadn't been nearly as hard as he'd been expecting, and Allen couldn't help saying, "I told you so." Lavi had pouted, of course, but Allen could tell he was genuinely happy that Allen had talked him out of his minor 'panic attack' – or at the very least, let him sleep for the rest of the day after his early morning stress.

Of course, that didn't stop Lavi from saying, "I bet I got a higher score than you did!" before rolling up in the covers of his bed and closing his eyes and ears to anyone and everything else.

Allen, the picture of tolerance and good humor, simply sighed with a smile.

* * *

[A/N] - Yes, I feel as distinctly as you do as a reader how short it is. Hopefully it was cute enough to distract you from that fact.

Here, I'd like to give a special mention and thank you to a couple of my reviewers. One to FierceEyes, who has entertained both of us with our back-and-forth conversation on music and utaite and the like - thank you for giving me something to look forward to whenever I send a PM to you! And another for Masked-Flame, who gave me such a sweet review, I felt compelled to write and post this - thank you for giving me that push in the back I needed!

Once again, I'm posting this late at night, so please tell me if there are typos or anything that needs explaining. Or if you'd like to chat. I'd like to chat sometimes. ouo

Lesse. Am I really evil enough to set a review limit for this? ... Yes. Yes, I am. /bracesforflameswithcoldwater .

We missed the last review limit by three, so seven reviews before the next chapter? Seven's a nice number. Nana~

Thank you for reading and reviewing and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!


	5. Studying

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

So I've been super busy. Su~per busy. I have midterms coming up next week and I've been studying so much. Not to mention just life.

Life.

Anyway.

Please, enjoy the fifth (short because it was all I could get out without my brain overheating) chapter of For the First Time!

**Recommendations: **Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own D. Gray-man in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

One week of Allen's attendance at the Academy turned into two, two turned into three, and three became a month. It was now the middle of July and the daily temperature around the Academy had risen considerably since Allen arrived, forcing many students to adapt and take shelter in the cooler locations within the Academy.

Stress levels seemed to be rising with the temperature as well – end-of-term final exams were fast approaching and would occupy the one week before the six-week-long summer vacation, allowing no time for premature rest. Even Allen had agreed with Lavi when the latter had insisted that Allen couldn't just lie back and watch what would happen to his grades if he didn't study. As such, Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee made it their business to huddle up in the library after their classes were finished, completing their assigned schoolwork and studying for final exams.

Lenalee leaned back in the chair she'd taken up upon entering the library, rubbing her hand and staring forlornly at the pencil with which she'd been writing furiously for the past hour. "My hand is cramping and I'm not even finished with the math homework." She picked up the pieces of lined paper she'd been writing on and tapped them against the table to straighten them out.

Allen looked over at her from where he was taking notes from his science textbook. "You haven't finished yet?"

She shook her head. "There's this one problem that I've been trying to figure out for the past ten minutes and I just can't seem to get the right answer." She motioned towards the slightly crumpled area of work on her paper.

Allen moved to pick it up. "May I?" Lenalee nodded. He held it in front of him, scanning over the work and saying, "I managed to finish it during my free period after math class. Let me see if I can find it – you can compare them and see if you can find what you've missed."

Lenalee brought her hands together in a single, quiet clap. "That'd be really helpful, Allen. Thank you!"

While Allen searched through his schoolbag, on his other side, Lavi was trying his best to focus on his assigned reading for history but kept nodding off, snapping back to a semi-alert state once his head fell from the hand that was supporting it.

He watched Allen mess with his bag for a moment before he grabbed his hair with both hands and threw his head back. "Man, I can't take this anymore! I hate final exams!" Some of the few students in the library looked at Lavi peevishly for his loud outburst but didn't say anything. Others nodded sagely in agreement before refocusing on what seemed to be their own study materials.

Allen voiced the thoughts of the former group of students and told Lavi, "Calm down, you're bothering other people."

"But Allen," the red-haired boy whined, "I'm so bored and there's so much to remember and I can't help but think that I could be taking a nap or something right now!"

"We all feel like that, Lavi," Lenalee assured him. She rubbed at her eyes with the back of one hand, accepting a small stack of papers from Allen with a grateful smile. She turned back to her work while she continued, "But if you think about it this way – all you have to do is get through the next week and a half and then we'll be free for summer vacation! It's like a reward for all the hard work we're doing right now."

Lavi sighed, clasping his hands behind his head and leaning back, tipping the chair onto its two back legs. "I know that, but I just can't wait. I'll be able to sleep whenever I want during summer vacation!"

Allen laughed. "That _would _be the only reason why you're looking forward to it. We have summer assignments though, right?"

Lenalee and Lavi groaned.

"Allen, don't talk about those," Lavi mumbled. "We only worry about those the last week of summer, when we all rush to finish because we've actually been enjoying the break."

"I-is that so…"

"Truth be told, it's really not the best way to do things, but we actually just tend to forget about them until the last week – most of the time, it's not like we choose to leave it all till the last minute." Lenalee shrugged, her shoulders sagging.

"I see," Allen said, noting that she really did look tired. "Lenalee, I think you should take a break. It's not good to work yourself too hard like this."

She rubbed at her eyes again, looking over all of her open books, papers, and pencils spread over the table. "But I haven't finished my math homework yet… and I still have to do the notes for science."

Allen saw her eyes flick to where his notes were pressed inside his textbook, which had been closed by the silver-haired boy when he'd stopped to talk to her and Lavi. "If it'll help you, I can finish the math for you," he offered.

She shook her head, smiling. "No, I have to do it myself or I won't understand how to do it on the exam."

"Then at least let me make a copy of the science notes for you," he insisted. _I feel bad for having a free period now when she and Lavi are stressing so much to finish their work – well, maybe not Lavi so much as Lenalee, but they're both tired. _Allen himself wasn't in the best shape – in the past month, he'd found out that school was a rather tiring affair, no matter how much he happened to enjoy it.

Lenalee seemed torn. "But that's not fair to you, Allen."

"It's fine – I had time to complete my work earlier, so I don't mind doing this."

"Well, but…" She bit her lip, glancing between him and the papers on the table.

"You should let him do it, Lenalee," Lavi piped up. "You look like you need some sleep more than I do."

She glared half-heartedly around Allen at Lavi. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lavi froze. "Well – not that you look _bad_, or anything, it's just that –"

Allen stood up, saving Lavi from having to respond. "Here – gather up your work. You can borrow my math homework and return it to me tomorrow before class starts. I'll walk you back to the dorm so you can rest."

Lenalee looked up at him from her chair for a moment and finally smiled. "… Okay."

He looked over to Lavi while she gathered up her items and stored them in her schoolbag. "Lavi, watch my things, okay? I'll be back soon."

Lavi gave him a thumbs-up, grinning. "Right-o. Rest up, Lenalee."

She smiled. "Thanks, Lavi. I'll see you tomorrow."

Allen picked up her textbooks, waving away Lenalee's mild protests and walked out of the library with her keeping pace by his side.

A single emerald-green eye followed their retreating backs before sliding shut.

* * *

[A/N] - Ohoho. Did I hint at something there?

Maybe~

/shot.

Anyway. Any reviews you leave will help me pull through the next couple of weeks without passing out from exhaustion~ Special thanks to all my readers who left reviews! They really perked me up when I read them~

And perhaps, since this was so short, five reviews before the next chapter?

/selfish.

/shotagain.

Anyway. I hope you liked this (short orz) chapter and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!


	6. Pondering

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

So, a huge hug to all my reviewers for this story! You really made these past two weeks a lot easier for me to bear, with all of the work I've been doing for school and everything. Because I've been so busy, I only had the time to squeeze this (short) chapter out of my brain because I didn't feel like leaving you all hanging.

./implyingthatthelastchapterac tuallyhadacliffhangerandgets shot. orz

But anyway. An open message to the wonderful people who only (what is only, that's such a relative term ./shot) favorite and follow me and/or this story - it makes me inordinately happy to see you do that, but I am a very greedy person that doesn't have the best character traits. So please, if you read this, take the time to leave a review? Flaming me for being a review hog is okay too, I guess...

./noit'snot,pleasedon't.

./cough.

Anyway. Please enjoy the sixth chapter of For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own D. Gray-man in any way, shape, or form. Just my tired brain that hates me for forcing it to make this.

* * *

The sun was in the middle of setting when Allen and Lenalee walked out of the library into the empty courtyard, the green branches of the large trees in the courtyard framing the multi-hued sky.

Lenalee tilted her head back to look at the sky with a content look on her face. "It's so nice outside. I feel better just being outside of that stuffy library."

Allen nodded his agreement. "It's comfortably warm now. During class today, Lavi had half a mind to ask the teacher if he could break open a window to catch a breeze." The large windows in all of the classrooms were fixed in their frames and could not be opened.

Lenalee giggled. "That sounds like something he'd do. Of course, you told him there was no way that'd happen, right?"

"Well, I did say something along the lines of 'it wouldn't be so hot if you stopped using energy to complain about it.'" Allen scratched the side of his face with an index finger, a slightly puzzled look appearing on his face. "I'm not sure why, but he seemed pretty shocked after I said that."

"I would be too! You always seemed so well-mannered and polite." Lenalee tilted her head to look over at him. "But now it seems like you've relaxed around us – you don't sound nearly as stiff and serious as you used to."

"You noticed too? Lavi mentioned the same thing a while ago." Allen's eyebrows drew together slightly. "I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable."

Lenalee shifted her grip on her schoolbag, moving to hold it in front of her legs with both hands. "It didn't. Really, I thought it made you a pretty interesting person."

He lifted a silver eyebrow. "Wait, so what am I now?"

She smiled widely. "You're my friend, of course!"

Allen got a strange sense of déjà vu, recalling when he'd said that phrase to Lavi as well. The red-haired boy had seemed so happy afterwards. Whatever Lavi had felt then, Allen thought he was feeling now as a warm smile appeared on his face. "You're my friend too, Lenalee."

Lenalee giggled, a light blush appearing on her face. "Well, it's a mutual thing, right? I don't think friendship is a one-sided relationship."

"I don't think so either," Allen agreed.

They were inside the West Wing at that point. Allen hesitated walking up the third flight of stairs to the girls' floors of the dormitory.

Lenalee took note of his pause and asked lightly, "You're not going to walk me to the door?"

"Er, I'm not too comfortable… If you really want me to, I will." Allen's voice betrayed his nerves.

She laughed. "You're being silly, Allen. It's not like we're going to hurt you or anything."

_I've had enough bad experiences because of Master and his women – they're vicious! Their faces don't show anything when they're planning the best way to wring money from you with a few sweet words and caresses. Master always fell for it and it was always up to me to get the money for them. _Allen shuddered. _I know – or, at least, believe – that the girls here aren't like that, but… _"Thanks for the reassurance, Lenalee," he said earnestly, "but I think I'll head back to the library. Lavi must be dying of boredom by now."

"You're probably right." She held her hands out for her textbooks, her schoolbag hanging on her wrist. Allen handed them to her while she said, "I'll see you tomorrow then. Thank you for your help."

"It was my pleasure." Allen bowed slightly and smiled. "Good night, Lenalee."

"Good night, Allen."

* * *

The sun had retreated completely and night had fallen by the time Allen exited the East Wing and made his way back to the library. He noticed that Lavi was practically the only person left in the library and felt a bit guilty for leaving him there by himself.

Allen approached the table where Lavi sat, leaning over his textbooks. Praise for Lavi's studiousness would have escaped Allen's lips if he hadn't noticed that Lavi was well and truly asleep. The red-haired boy had pillowed his head on his arms, which were resting on top of one of his larger textbooks, pages open, which had given Allen the illusion that he had still been awake. Allen sighed and sat down in his seat next to the napping boy.

He checked that all of his belongings were still there before opening his science textbook and his notebook to a fresh page. A pencil in hand, he worked on Lenalee's copy of notes for half an hour, finishing before the librarian's aide, Fou, came around. She'd been a great help when Allen had gone to the library near the beginning of the year to get his textbooks, and though her tone of voice when speaking to him seemed abrasive to most, Allen had found that it was a bit endearing.

"… Walker, is it?" Fou recalled the silver-haired boy's last name while idly glancing over the table. "Looks like you've gotten some work done."

He nodded in response. "I'd like to think so."

"The library is going to close soon, so unless you want to join your friend there and sleep here for the night, I suggest that you get all your stuff and haul it back to your room." She pointed at a clock hanging on the side of one of the bookshelves. Allen was surprised when he noticed it read a quarter to ten.

"Ah, I hadn't realized it'd gotten so late. Thank you, Fou."

"Yeah, yeah, good night and all of that. I'm tired, so get out of here so I can sleep." She raised her hand to cover a yawn and walked away.

Allen packed all of his papers and stacked his textbooks into a pile. He turned to Lavi and shook his shoulder. "Lavi. Lavi, get up."

Lavi groaned, but, to his credit, woke up rather easily, if not completely. "Wha… Oh, Allen. You're back."

"I've been back for more than half an hour, Lavi," Allen said, amused.

The red-haired boy's visible green eye widened. "Oh, crap, really? Sorry about that. You should have woken me up."

"It's okay. I was making Lenalee's set of notes and you looked like you needed the rest, so there wasn't any reason to wake you up."

"But still…"

Allen waved him off. "Anyway, the library's going to close soon, so get your pillow and let's go back to the room."

"Pillow… What pill – ohh." Lavi rolled his eye before scooping his textbook and other study materials off the table and following Allen out of the library.

* * *

[A/N] - So yeah. It's short. I apologize very much.

Anyway~ Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!

./anddecidetoleaveareview.

./shotagain. orz

ouo''


	7. Remembering

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

HEY, SO. Guess what.

This chapter is full-length~ Or more lengthy than they've been recently. Which I am very proud of.

I don't have much to say before the story, so I'll save it for after.

Please enjoy the seventh installment of For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it makes it look cleaner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own D. Gray-man. /sob.

* * *

Much to the population of the Academy's relief, final exams ended after the following week. Summer vacation commenced and the students were let loose for a glorious six weeks of sun, sleep, and relaxation. As Allen had predicted, the teachers had warned them that there were, in fact, summer assignments, but no one seemed particularly bothered by the announcement – or bothered to notice.

Indeed, it seemed as if some students couldn't wait to leave the Academy at their backs for the duration of the vacation. Students that had registered with the main office were able to leave the Academy and visit their homes. Lenalee was among those leaving, but she had sworn that it was because her brother refused to leave her with Allen and Lavi any longer than he had deemed necessary.

Outside the South Gate, Lenalee stood on the sidewalk with her back to a sleek black car that Allen recognized. Soon after he'd arrived at the Academy, Mother had mentioned to him that the car than he had woken up in after Cross had knocked him out was one of the cars that the Academy used for official business and transport. Allen and Lavi were outside with her, all three of them waiting for her brother to appear and leave with her.

"I'll be back in a couple of weeks or so," she said ruefully. "I was looking forward to hanging out with you guys during the vacation."

"You can when you get back, remember?" Lavi leaned against one of the walls that held up the gate. "It's not like your brother's going to kidnap you and keep you from coming back or something, right?"

Lenalee's silently pensive look was the only answer Lavi got.

"Anyway…" Allen cut in. "You're going to visit China, right, Lenalee?"

"Yep." Lenalee nodded. "It's where my brother and I were born. It'll be nice to see it again."

Allen noticed that she didn't seem as enthusiastic as her words would have suggested. He didn't ask about it and instead said, "I've been to China before because of Master's travels, but I've never been able to just walk around and enjoy the sights."

Lavi raised an eyebrow at Allen's mention of 'Master.' He glanced over his shoulder into the school and said, "Hey! There's your brother, Lenalee."

She looked past Allen and saw that Komui was practically skipping down the paved path towards them. Allen looked back too and could almost see the flowery pink background of happiness behind Komui's head as the blue-haired man walked through the gate.

"LENALEEEEEE!" Komui's first attempt at attacking Lenalee with a hug failed, ending with her foot in his stomach. "How mean! We're finally going to go on a trip together and this is how you want to start it off? Well, that's okay, because I know you love me any-"

A whack to the head effectively cut his tirade off. "I might love you but it doesn't mean you're entitled to do this every single time you see me."

"B-but Lenalee…" Komui seemed on the verge of tears, but upon seeing Allen and Lavi out of the corner of his eye, he straightened and composed himself. "Anyway, let's go now. We're going to miss our flight if we're late."

"I was waiting on you, not the other way around," she reminded him. Lavi and Allen stepped forward when the car door behind Lenalee opened. "I'm going to miss you two."

"We will too, Lenalee. Have a safe trip," Allen said.

"Don't forget to get us some souvenirs while you're over there," Lavi told her.

Lenalee nodded. She held her arms open for a hug and received one each from both of the boys, much to Komui's vocalized dismay, before two siblings ducked into the car. It drove off with Allen and Lavi waving to it as it disappeared down the road.

Lavi let his arm fall, sighing and running a hand through his hair. "Seriously though, why did their flight have to be so early in the morning? I could still be sleeping right now."

Allen chuckled. "Lenalee would have been mad if you'd missed saying goodbye to her."

"Yeah, I know. Well, whatever. It's just you and me for the next two weeks, buddy!"

Lavi threw his arms across Allen's shoulders in a friendly hug. Allen felt his back bend a little under the added weight and shifted slightly.

"Hey… you're heavy."

* * *

A little more than a week passed after Lenalee's departure. At an early hour of the morning, Lavi was still sound asleep, sleeping more on top of his covers rather than under them due to having kicked them off unconsciously because of the slight stuffiness in the room. Allen, however, was wide awake, busily making his bed and going over what he had prepared for this rather special day that he'd been alerted to a couple of days ago.

* * *

"… Really?"

Allen expressed his disbelief to a phone call, whose other end was being held up by Lenalee, calling in to see how he and Lavi were doing.

"_Yep. You didn't know? I thought Lavi would have told you that his birthday was coming up soon."_

"He must have forgotten with the constant napping he's been doing all hours of the day, or something like that."

"_Maybe – you have to admit, it wouldn't really be that surprising if that was true."_

Allen made a noise of assent. "So it's on the tenth, right?"

"_Yep. I was disappointed when I found out I'd be missing it, but my brother refused to let me stay for any reason, so here I am."_

Allen pulled the phone away from his ear a bit, the radiating heat from the device making it stick to his skin a bit. _Today's the eighth already. With Lavi being… Lavi, I'd have expected him to be the kind of person who would constantly hint at his birthday and not-so-subtly ask for presents or something. _He frowned slightly. _I guess I don't know him as well as I might have liked to believe._

Allen shook his head and shifted the phone back onto his ear. "Don't worry. I'll be sure to wish him a 'happy birthday' for you."

"_Thanks, Allen." _Lenalee's voice became muffled as she replied to someone talking to her on her end. _ "Oh, my brother said we have to get going now or we'll miss the bus, so I'll talk to you again soon. I'll be sure to get Lavi a present while I'm over here – and a souvenir for you!"_

"I'm looking forward to it. Have fun, Lenalee."

"_Bye!"_

* * *

Needless to say, he had mentally scrambled to come up with something to get Lavi for his birthday – his nineteenth, if Allen recalled correctly. Fortunately, Lavi had mentioned something that he would have liked if he was allowed to leave the Academy grounds – unfortunately for him, most students weren't allowed outside the Academy because there was really no need for them to be. Anything that a student might have wanted or needed could be provided for within the Academy itself.

Lavi thought otherwise with his own small wish, but Allen had found a way to make it come true – with a little help from the Academy's nurse, Hevlaska.

Lavi would receive a series of small presents from Allen throughout the day, but his true gift would be coming later in the day – after the birthday boy woke up and dragged himself out of bed.

Allen considered his patience to be his first small present, because he would allow Lavi to wake up on his own time, no matter how long it took. He toyed idly with his deck of cards, practicing his shuffling and sleights of hand. Luckily, it wasn't too long before Lavi yawned and sat up in his bed, red hair sticking up in odd places and one hand raised to block out the bright sunlight filtering in through the window.

"Morning, Allen," he said, alerting Allen to his state of consciousness.

"Good morning, Lavi. Happy birthday!" Allen smiled, sitting cross-legged on the blue-shaded covers of his own bed.

"… What?" Lavi's visible eye widened. He scrambled to check the date. "Wait, you're telling me it's the tenth already?"

Allen raised an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me that you honestly forgot your own birthday?"

"Well, each day's kind of been the same thing over and over and I guess I didn't bother to keep track of time." He grinned toothily.

"You've been sleeping too much," was all Allen could say.

Lavi hummed noncommittally. "Thanks for the 'happy birthday,' though. But how did you know about it? I'm pretty sure I never told you when it was…"

"You didn't - Lenalee called a couple days ago while you were napping." He gave Lavi a sidelong look, a small smile on his face. "She mentioned it to me. She also wanted to say happy birthday."

"That'd explain it. She's always been great with remembering things like that."

Allen nodded, then clapped his hands together. "So. It's your birthday. What do you want to do?"

Lavi scratched his head, messing up his bedhead even more. "I have to do something different for it? I figure the way I've been spending the vacation so far is good enough, right?"

"Now you're just being lazy," Allen chided. "Decide on something to do – _besides _napping, or I won't give you your present."

The red-haired birthday boy perked up at the mention of a present. "You got me one?"

"I might as well not have if you don't get up and decide what to do today." Allen crossed his arms.

"Persistent." Lavi chuckled, pausing to think for a moment. "But now that you're pressing me about it, there's actually something that I've been wondering about for a while. Let's go get breakfast first though."

The two went downstairs after getting dressed and picked up a substantial amount of food from Jerry, who had decided against taking a break from cooking over the summer vacation. They brought all of it outside to the tree they had taken to lounging under since the break had started. Allen sat down and started to inhale every piece of food he got his hands on while Lavi watched, eating at his own, markedly slower pace and grinning, due the expressions of people walking past them and spotting Allen's voracious eating habits.

"What were you wondering about, then?" Allen stopped to wipe his mouth neatly on a napkin, tilting his head questioningly.

"Well, it actually has to do with you." Lavi stretched on the grass and pillowed his head on one arm, looking over at Allen. "I've been trying to figure out who this 'Master' you keep talking about is. You don't seem to like him very much, if I've been hearing you right." A dark expression flitted over Allen's face, confirming Lavi's suspicions. "I'm just curious, is all. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Allen shook his head. "No, it's alright. I don't mind." He leaned back on his hands and looked up through the branches of the tree above to the sky. "You actually already know what he looks like – he's one of the benefactors of this Academy and his statue is over there, in the fountain." He pointed at the visible statue of Cross Marian with a mask covering half of his face and holding a gun up in the air with water spraying in a jet from the barrel.

Lavi followed Allen's finger and flinched. "That guy? He doesn't look like the best person, just to say about the way he looks…"

Allen nodded in agreement. "Master was my… caretaker before I arrived here. Not that he was very good at taking care of anything except his insatiable hunger for women and alcohol." He sighed at the multitude of traumatic memories that his statement evoked. "He completely refused to take care of his own money as well. He spent it all, then borrowed some and spent all of that as well, and when the people he borrowed from came to reclaim their loans, he gave me over to them to pay it off for him."

Allen glanced over at Lavi, who seemed shocked, to say the least, then turned his eyes skyward again. The silver-haired boy could feel his demeanor darkening the more he talked about it, but continued. "Collectively, they were rather unpleasant experiences. I had to do many different things to pay off Master's various debts, from completely menial chores to strenuous manual labor – I remember that you asked me when I first attended physical education class with you why I was so strong. That could be the reason."

"So, when you said you're good at card games and gambling, you meant…"

Allen nodded. "Poker happened to be a very quick, relatively painless way of earning back the money Master had spent, so I ended up becoming very good at it." A sinister smirk appeared on his lips as he declared, "I've never lost a game and it's impossible for me to lose. I've never let it happen and I never will."

"You've got something scary going on there, Allen." Lavi laughed, a tad nervously. "But if he was such a bad guardian, why were you with him in the first place? There must have been somewhere or someone else that you could have gone to."

Allen sobered immediately. "I was left to him after my foster father died."

Lavi's eye widened and he sat up quickly. "Allen… You don't have to force yourself to talk about it." He hesitated, seeming to argue with himself before he gently placed his hand over Allen's where it rested in the grass.

Allen smiled at Lavi's thoughtfulness. "I'm not forcing myself. I actually think I'll feel better if I tell you about it."

Lavi watched Allen, searching for honesty in the younger boy's silvery eyes. He appeared to find it before he nodded, turning to lie on his side and keeping his hand over Allen's. "If you say so."

Allen watched the leaves in the tree above rustle with the breeze that picked up strands of his silver-white hair and played with it before his eyes. "I was an orphan. At the orphanage where I was left, I was told that my parents hadn't wanted me and left me at their doorstep. I tended to keep to myself and didn't talk to the other children much, if at all. They marked me as a mute, or stupid, or something else along those lines and didn't talk to me either. I didn't mind. I didn't think I was lonely.

"I was though – very lonely, and I didn't realize that until Mana arrived at the orphanage and adopted me." A soft smile crossed Allen's face. "He was a simple man, a clown and part of a travelling circus. I was glad to be with him, to be a part of the world outside of the orphanage. He taught me a lot of different things – how to do tricks and how to enjoy eating and how to live. He often told me to 'keep moving forward' and to 'always look ahead.'"

His smile vanished and a small frown took its place. "Mana's death was unexpected. We, as part of the troupe of the circus, had been practicing for that night's show. One of the other members had been a juggler and he'd been practicing a new kind of act – one that involved fire and burning pokers. He had never tried that kind of trick before and Mana and I had happened to be nearby when he threw them too far and out of his reach. Mana instantly caught on fire because of the costume he'd put on for the show."

"After the poker had hit Mana, it landed on my face over my eye and gave me this scar." Allen traced the red lines of the scar on his face with the index finger of his gloved hand as he spoke. "I was lucky that I hadn't lost my eye completely."

"I was still young at the time and I'd been hanging onto Mana to make sure I didn't get lost. The fire spread up my left arm to my shoulder before someone put it out." Allen pulled his left hand away from where Lavi had kept his hand and involuntarily gripped Allen's while he told his tale. Lavi hastily released it and watched as Allen pulled the glove off of his hand, revealing the blackened skin beneath. He rolled up the sleeve of his shirt as well, more of the discolored skin appearing with a slight sheen underneath the sunlight.

"I don't know if you ever noticed this. Did you?" Allen asked Lavi, gesturing at the marred skin.

The red-haired boy nodded, looking slightly abashed. "Sometimes when you were working on homework or making your bed, your sleeves would ride up and I could see it. I didn't think I was supposed to because you had the gloves on and you refused to roll up your sleeves even when it got really hot in the classroom, so I never asked."

Allen smiled. "Thank you, Lavi. I never knew you could wake up early enough to see me making my bed, though." Lavi took on a sheepish look at that. "The shock from Mana's death caused my hair to grow out white like this." Allen pinched a strand of his hair in between the blackened fingers of his left hand. "My arm and hand were paralyzed and hard to use after the incident. I practiced them and made them work again by playing cards. Now, they work as well as they ever have, if not better. I really only have the scars and my face in the mirror to remind me that it actually happened and wasn't just a bad dream."

A pair of warm hands closed around Allen's left hand. He looked up from them to Lavi, whose eye held some emotion that Allen couldn't quite decipher. "I'm sorry, Allen."

"What are you apologizing for?" Allen gave him a crooked smile. "It happened a long time ago – I'm fairly sure there's nothing that you could have done then that would have caused it to happen, so there's no reason for you to say sorry."

"But still… I made you relive that. All because I was curious…"

Allen shook his head. "You wanted to know more about me. I believe that's human nature, not something you should fault yourself for. I…" He paused before voicing what he'd been thinking during his call with Lenalee. "I actually was disappointed with myself that I didn't know when your birthday was when Lenalee told me about it. I thought that I should have taken the time to learn more about you, and that it was my fault that I didn't know about it."

Lavi seemed stunned. "But we've really only known each other for a couple of months, despite the fact that we've become such good friends, you know. That's kind of the reason why I feel like I shouldn't have pressured you to tell me about your past like this."

"I chose to tell you. You didn't pressure me to do anything," Allen assured him.

Lavi still seemed skeptical but accepted Allen's statement. "Well, don't beat yourself up over it if you end up regretting it later, 'cause I think you look way more interesting this way. They make you unique." Suddenly, a bright, lopsided grin appeared on his face and he sat up straight, pulling his hands away from Allen's. "I should tell you about my eye then, right?"

Allen found that he missed the warmth a bit while he replaced his glove and rolled his sleeve back down. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he said, echoing Lavi's earlier words.

"No, no, I want to. To be honest, it's not nearly as interesting as yours." Lavi seemed almost excited to tell his story. "When I was a little kid, my mom and dad died in a house fire. I was visiting with Grandpa Bookman when it happened. I didn't have any older siblings or relatives, so I got stuck with him. You should meet him sometime – I feel like you'd get along well."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing. He had this weird thing for needles and acupuncture and he used to let me be his test subject pretty often – hey, don't look at me like that! I was little and it seemed like a cool idea," Lavi objected to Allen's raised eyebrow. "But anyway, one day he told me that he was going to do it around my eye and that I had to stay still. I tried, really but a needle coming straight for your eye would freak out anyone, so I twitched and the needle kind of… ended up in the wrong place."

Allen flinched at the visualization his mind provided for him.

"It's not like anything really bad happened. You know how acupuncture is supposed to fix problems?" At Allen's faint nod, he continued, "Well, I didn't have a problem in the first place, so it kind of improved on what I already had. Now my right eye is super sensitive to light and focuses on things a lot farther away than my left, so I keep it covered with this so I don't have to worry about it." He tapped his eyepatch with a finger.

Allen nodded in understanding. It did seem a rather logical way to keep light and sensation away from his hypersensitive eye. He had thought the eyepatch an odd accessory when he'd first met Lavi, but now it seemed like something that suited him. Thinking back to that first meeting with the red-haired boy reminded Allen of something.

"Hey, Lavi. You never did tell me why you were sleeping under your bed the first time I met you. I forgot about it until now but you just reminded me."

Lavi stared at Allen for a moment before replying, "Oh, that? I actually didn't want to tell you because I thought I'd give the first impression that I was a pansy or something."

"Oh really? Pray tell."

Lavi sighed. "You're not going to let me out of this, are you?" Allen shook his head, an innocent smile forming on his face. "I was actually hiding from Lenalee because she wanted me to go with her and tell her brother to stop harassing me." Allen's eyes lit up in sympathetic understanding. "I mean, what was she thinking? How would my being there make it any easier for her to convince him that I'm not out to get her or something? He probably would have jumped to some weird conclusions and assumed I was trying to ask him if I could marry her – and then he probably would have killed me."

Lavi ended his short rant with a hand covering his face after having slapped his forehead in a gesture of exhaustion. He let his hand fall. "I guess I fell asleep because when I woke up, I saw your feet and decided to grab onto them to figure out who was trespassing."

"It's nice to know you had a legitimate reason for tripping me and making me think someone was trying to attack me," Allen noted, a slight bite of joking sarcasm adding to his tone.

Lavi rolled his eye. "Well, whatever. It didn't bother you enough to bug me about it later, so no harm done."

Allen laughed. He stacked up his empty plates and bowls with a smile on his face. "It's about time for you to get your birthday present. Let's take these dishes back to Jerry and I'll show you where it is."

Lavi arched an eyebrow, gathering up his own meager number of plates. "That story of yours wasn't my present? Because I'm telling you, I'm pretty happy with that already."

"That's good, but that's not what I had planned on giving you, so you get both." Allen placed the plates next to Jerry at the counter and thanked the large chef for the food.

Lavi did the same and followed Allen out to the courtyard, where the silver-haired boy followed the path leading to the North Wing. He entered the building after Allen, retracing his footsteps until they reached the nurse's office.

"… Did you get me a check-up or something?" Lavi intoned dryly.

Allen cuffed him lightly on the head. "Oh, shut up." He knocked on the door, calling out, "Miss Hevlaska? Are you available right now?"

A female voice muffled by the door replied, "Of course, Allen! Come in – you have Lavi with you?"

Allen turned the knob and entered the sterile white room with Lavi in tow. "He's right here."

Hevlaska turned in her chair to face the two boys entering the office. She pushed her wavy platinum hair back over her shoulder and smiled. "So you're the birthday boy?"

"Hey, Hevlaska." Lavi grinned. "Long time no see."

"I'll say – you haven't gotten hurt in the past six weeks. That's a new record."

"Well, Allen here has been taking care of me. Lenalee too, when Allen decides that he's getting annoyed with me." Lavi's grin widened at Allen's protest.

Allen cleared his throat and asked Hevlaska, "Did you get the supplies you needed? I know it must have been a hassle for you to get it on such short notice, especially since the office wouldn't normally stock things like that."

Hevlaska waved him off with one hand, adjusting her white doctor's coat with the other. "Mother is lenient when it comes to getting things for the students, so there wasn't a problem at all."

"That's good."

Lavi looked back and forth between the two. "Okay, I'm feeling left out now. What's my present?"

"I'll go get it now." Hevlaska stood up and walked over to a drawer, pulling it open and rummaging around in it until she found what she wanted with a happy, "Aha!" She turned around to show Lavi a pair of needles with something attached to the blunt ends.

"I remember you saying that you wanted to get your ears pierced but couldn't get out of the Academy to do it, so I asked Miss Hevlaska to get a set of piercing needles so she could do it for you." Allen blushed slightly after explaining his gift to Lavi, who seemed dumbfounded for a moment before turning on Allen and throwing his arm over the shorter boy's shoulders in a tight, one-armed hug.

"Allen, you're the best! I didn't ever think I'd get the chance to get this done!" Lavi seemed excited enough to grab the needles himself and poke his own ears.

"I'm glad you like it. There wasn't much else I could think up on such short notice." Allen smiled at Lavi's enthusiasm.

"It's perfect! Can you do it now, Hevlaska? Can you?"

"I can if you sit down and stay still."

This would prove to be a difficult challenge for the red-haired boy, since he was excited enough to bounce up and down in his chair, even after grabbing the arms to steady himself. Allen had to stand behind him and hold his shoulders down so Hevlaska could position Lavi's earlobe in her hand after cleaning it with an antiseptic-soaked cotton ball.

"This is going to sting, so don't throw Allen off or rip your ear away," she warned Lavi.

"Got it."

She started slowly, pushing the sharp tip of the needle through Lavi's earlobe slowly until it emerged on the other side. Lavi gripped the arms of the chair tightly and Allen patted his shoulders comfortingly. She reached around to pull on that side until the needle had gone completely through, leaving behind a stud in its place. Lavi jumped a bit when she placed the clutch on the back of the stud, but remained otherwise seated and calm. Hevlaska repeated the process on his other earlobe and stood up straight, the needles in her hands. Allen reached for a mirror on the nightstand of one of the beds nearby and walked in front of Lavi, holding the mirror up so the other could see his face.

"Do you like them?" Allen asked.

"Definitely! They look awesome!" Lavi poked at the studs a bit, noting the bright green color of the small stones set into the silver.

"I thought green would go along with your eyes. Peridot is the birthstone of August, so it was a lucky coincidence that it only comes in tones of green."

"You'll have to keep those clean and in your ears for the next two months," Hevlaska said, returning from having disposed of the needles. "I'll give you the solution to clean them off with and you'll use it twice a day, every day, no exceptions. I don't want to see you in here in two weeks complaining that your ear hurts because you have an infection."

"Yes, ma'am." Lavi grinned at her. "Thanks for this, Hevlaska."

"Thank Allen, not me. I would have never bothered to do this for you if he hadn't asked."

Lavi turned in his seat to look at Allen. "Thanks Allen. This is probably the best present you could have given me – next to your story from earlier." He smiled warmly at the silver-haired boy, who replied with a smile of his own.

Hevlaska gave Lavi a bottle of cleaning solution and told Allen to make sure Lavi used it. Allen promised to remind him and they left, thanking her on the way out once more. They arrived back in their room after a short walk. It was about midday now, and Allen felt the need to nap, as Lavi normally did most hours of the day.

"I feel kind of tired now, Lavi. I'm going to sleep for a bit. Will you wake me up when it's time for lunch?" Allen asked.

"No guarantees there. I'm going to nap too, so if we both sleep through lunch, it's not going to be my fault."

"Do you want me to die of hunger in my sleep?" Allen intoned, tilting his head after sitting on his bed.

"… Considering that it's you, that's actually kind of a possibility, now that I think about it," Lavi admitted, his eyebrows drawing together. "I'll be sure to wake you up – eventually."

Deciding that was as good a promise as he was going to get, Allen slipped underneath the covers. "Thanks, Lavi. Happy birthday."

The silver-haired boy nodded off while Lavi walked over to the window and drew the curtains, blocking out the light and pulling his own covers over himself after climbing in bed.

His voice slightly muffled by the comforter drawn up around his mouth, Lavi spoke to the quiet room, "It is a happy birthday. Thank you, Allen – for everything."

* * *

[A/N] - So there's more to read in this author's note too.

So this was light-hearted, but it was also fairly serious. Please let me know what you think about that - I tried to not let one tone overpower the other, but if it got too sappy or too comical for the situation, let me know~ Reviewers are my way of improving myself and my writing for all of you!

That being said, I do have to do the obligatory asking-for-reviews thing here too. /cowersinfear. So please, review!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!

Also, happy belated Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) to those in America!


	8. Playing

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

Ahh, not much to say. I'm on break from school right now so I'm a great deal more relaxed than I was a few weeks ago.

This chapter is extremely short - apologies beforehand.

Even so, please enjoy the eighth chapter of For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it makes it look cleaner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not and never will own D. Gray-man or its characters or anything else I might've ever wanted from it.

* * *

A week after his birthday, Lavi would have sworn that hell had come up from below and decided to burn everything on the surface. The temperature rose even more, to the point where being anywhere without air conditioning was rather unbearable. Even Allen, who was adverse to the idea of baring his marred left arm for people to see, was forced to roll up his sleeves and abandon his gloves – only when he was sure Lavi was his only witness, though.

The heat had made both Allen and Lavi lethargic as well, keeping them from doing anything that might have kept them occupied. Instead, they had retreated to the kitchen, where Jerry was happy to supply them with refreshingly cold drinks and ice cream.

"Hey, Allen." Lavi drew the other boy's attention away from his seventh glass of iced lemonade. "… I'm bored."

Allen sighed lightly. "I know. Summer vacation's become kind of monotonous." He stood up and walked over to the dining hall's kitchen counter to refill his glass before returning to his seat across the table from Lavi. "Unless you feel like starting the summer assignments…"

Lavi cringed, hitting his head on the table where he'd been resting it for the past several minutes. He rubbed the abused spot on his forehead, his eyes narrowed at the thought of doing something productive. "No way."

"Well then, you're out of options." He paused. "Actually…" Allen patted the pockets on his pants until he felt the sharp edge of his stack of playing cards. "We can play a game – I forgot I had these with me."

Lavi raised his head, eyeing the cards with interest. "What game were you thinking of?"

"Poker, of course."

Lavi's interest turned into wariness at the sight of the seemingly innocent smile forming on Allen's face. "With what stakes?"

"We don't have to have any, if you don't want them." Allen idly shuffled the cards, the black-and-white backs of the cards blurring into an arc jumping from one hand to the other before he tapped them on the table, straightening them into a clean deck.

"That would defeat the point of playing poker."

"You can set the bet then."

"Eh…" Lavi thought for a moment before Allen could practically see the light bulb pop up from his head. "How about, if I win, you're not allowed to use the bathroom for the next twenty-four hours?"

Allen was horrified by the thought. "Are you trying to kill me by rupturing my bladder?"

"Of _course_ not."

Lavi's grin and joking tone betrayed him. Allen relaxed. He had nothing to worry about anyway. "Then those will be my terms as well. You've had as much to drink as I have, so there's plenty at stake here."

Lavi felt a sense of foreboding from the smile still present on Allen's face – something about it seemed to tell him to run and use the bathroom while he still could.

* * *

"Call!"

Lavi winced at the word and prepared for the worst. Allen flashed him a crooked smile and lay down his cards face-up to reveal his hand.

"… A royal straight flush?" Lavi was horrified.

"Looks like I win." Allen's self-satisfied smile led Lavi to believe that something wasn't quite right.

"Allen…"

"Hm?" The silver-haired boy shuffled their hands back into the deck with a quizzical tilt to his head.

"Are you cheating?"

Allen's silence and slight avoidance of eye contact confirmed his suspicions.

"Allen!" Lavi protested. "Come on! If you're as good at poker as you said you were, then you shouldn't have to do that kind of thing."

Allen's cheeks flushed a light shade of pink and he had the grace to look abashed. "I'm sorry. It's… a hard habit to break. When I had to pay off Master's debts, people would always try to cheat me since I was young and apparently easy to trick. I had to learn how to cheat them in return, and ever since, I've never let myself lose a game."

Lavi sighed sympathetically and put a hand on Allen's shoulder. "Well, no one's trying to get money out of you now. It wouldn't kill you to lose a game."

The younger boy's stormy grey eyes shone with a glint of competitiveness. "Who said I would lose if I didn't cheat? Cheating just assures an outstanding victory – I'd win anyway."

* * *

[A/N] - When it takes me next to no time to edit relative to the time required to write, I know it's either short or that I took way too freaking long to write.

In this instant, it's the former.

But anyway.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! I hope you enjoyed this small gift from me to all of you!

Have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter and enjoy hot chocolate with marshmallows!


	9. Returning

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

Another short gift for all my readers - my reviewers might've known this was coming if I remembered to mention it in their replies.

Please enjoy the ninth chapter of For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not, cannot, shall not, will not, could not, and probably should not ever own D. Gray-man.

* * *

A few more days passed and Lenalee returned from China, pulling up in the same black car she had left in and stepping through the gate with arms full of nothing because Komui had insisted on carrying it all for her. She waited for him to set them down next to the gate before rummaging through her bags and pulling out a large panda plush that doubled as a pillow for Lavi and a large bag of assorted candies for Allen. The two boys accepted their gifts with smiles and hugs.

"So how was China?" Allen asked, breaking into his bag of candies right away and popping one in his mouth as the trio walked slowly from the South Gate to the center of the courtyard.

"It was nice – way too hot for me, but I liked seeing everything again. I hadn't been there since I was a little girl, so I go this feeling of nostalgia when I saw all the markets and streets." Lenalee smiled. "They had a lot of street vendors there – I always imagined you eating them all out of food whenever I saw them."

"He tried to do that to Jerry here," Lavi piped up, trying to steal a candy from the bag in the crook of Allen's arm and failing. "We haven't been up to much besides eating and sleeping. It was probably as hot here as it was in China."

The three sat down on the edge of the fountain, Allen in the middle with Lavi and Lenalee on either side.

Lenalee laughed. "Somehow I doubt that, but I'll take your word for it… Hey, Lavi! You pierced your ears!" She pointed at the bright green stones set into Lavi's earlobes, leaning around Allen to get a closer look.

The red-haired boy grinned, shouldering the panda plush as if giving it a piggy-back ride. "Allen's birthday present to me."

"They look good on you! You should have gotten them earlier," Lenalee said. She turned to Allen and scanned his face for a moment. "You know, you'd look pretty good with earrings too."

"Do you think so?" Allen mused.

She nodded vigorously. "You should consider it."

He made a noncommittal hum, starting on his next piece of candy. Lavi made a lunge for the bag and missed, nearly falling into the fountain when Allen switched to holding the bag behind his back.

"Come on, Allen," Lavi whined. "There're so many in that bag – you can spare one…"

"I could, but I won't. They're Lenalee's gift to me, not to you."

"Sharing is caring!"

"I don't see you trying to share your panda with me."

Lavi's face flushed. "Well, of course not. It'd be pretty awkward to share a pillow."

Allen raised an eyebrow. "If you say so. Either way, no candy for you."

Lenalee giggled, breaking up their minor spat. "Lavi, I think you'll live without it."

"You're both against me now," Lavi mourned, standing up. "I'm just going to go back to the room and sulk with the panda."

Allen looked up at the darkening sky. "It is getting late. We should let you rest, Lenalee. I'm sure the long plane ride back here wasn't all that comfortable."

"It could have been better," she agreed, getting up and brushing off the hem of her skirt. "Now that you mention it, there was actually this one little boy that was sitting behind me that just _refused _to stop kicking my chair…"

Together, they walked to the East Wing, exchanging stories and chatting about random nonevents until they reached Allen and Lavi's room. There, the boys said good night to Lenalee and thanked her once more for the gifts before closing the door behind them.

Allen borrowed the bathroom first, but not before stashing his bag of candies under his nightstand and warning Lavi that he knew exactly how many candies were inside. Lavi dropped his panda onto his bed, where it settled among his pillows with a soft thump. He changed into a comfortable set of clothes to sleep in before Allen emerged from the bathroom, eyes half-closed and fluttering with sleep.

"I'm all done with the bathroom," Allen said, yawning as he passed the other boy entering the bathroom after him.

"Alright."

Lavi took a few minutes to prepare himself for bed before exiting. He made his way over to his bed and noticed the conspicuous absence of his panda from his bad. He was confused for a moment before he noticed a single piece of candy resting on his pillow. He looked over to see Allen with his arms wrapped around the big plush, watching Lavi pick up the candy and toss it up in the air before catching it.

"It's not that awkward sharing the panda," Allen told him.

Lavi scratched his head. "I guess not, but only one piece? Stingy."

Allen turned over, his back facing Lavi. "If you're going to eat that now, brush your teeth again."

"Good night to you too." Lavi chuckled before unwrapping the candy and tossing it in his mouth.

* * *

[A/N] - And there you go. For anyone that might have missed her, Lenalee's back home.

Please consider reviewing after reading~ All the virtual hugs I can give are yours if you do~

Bribery(?) aside, Happy New Year's Eve and Happy New Years to everyone! May the coming year be filled with happiness and cheer!


	10. Burdening

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

I've been sick. With the flu. My life has been a fair bit more difficult as a result, but somehow I managed to squeeze this out of my fevered brain.

Though it's short, please enjoy the tenth chapter of For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner.

**Disclaimer: **Ah, nope. Nope, nope, nope.

* * *

Summer vacation passed quickly, and the student population had already suffered through another month of school. Now mid-October, the leaves on the trees around the Academy had shifted from vibrant greens to stunning reds and oranges, along with the dull brown that heralded the coming of autumn. Luckily for the Academy's population, the temperatures had dropped to a more bearable range, though many knew that winter would eventually bring uncomfortable chills.

Sunday morning met Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee on their day off from classes eating breakfast in the dining hall. Lenalee had come up with an interesting proposition for the day that gave Allen reason to pause in scarfing down his massive breakfast.

"Going outside of the Academy?"

Lenalee nodded. "I have permission to leave the Academy on non-school days and since I asked, I can bring other people with me. I thought you and Lavi'd like the chance to get out of this place for a while and just walk around town."

"It sounds interesting," Allen agreed. "I wouldn't mind looking around – I don't think I've been outside of the Academy since I arrived."

Lavi let his head drop to the table, drawing the attention of the other two when he mumbled, "Aw, Lenalee… You had to pick today to go?"

"It's the only day we don't have school and my brother has a faculty meeting, so he can't follow me or anything. I thought it would be the best day to go," she said, a small, confused frown appearing on her face.

"Yeah, it definitely would be – if I didn't have detention today." Lavi pouted. "Our history teacher got mad at me for sleeping too much in class, so he gave me kitchen _and _yard duty. I have to wash all the dishes from breakfast and then go sweep up all those leaves in the courtyard." Allen stiffened, glancing at Lavi and quickly averting his eyes from the other's single green eye. "What's up, Allen?"

"Er…"

Allen only had to gesture helplessly at all of his empty breakfast plates and bowls atop the table surrounding the trio for Lavi to get the message. "… _Allen!_"

"I'm sorry!" Allen clapped his hands together, seeming to beg for forgiveness. "If I had known, I wouldn't have eaten so much!"

Lavi groaned. "I'm going to be here all day!"

"I'll stay behind and help you then," Allen said, feeling all together extremely guilty for making Lavi's situation worse.

The red-haired boy shook his head in the negative. "You'd get in trouble for trying to help me. Go with Lenalee – there's no better day than today to go see the town with her, considering her nut of a brother isn't going to be around." He paused, then added, "No offense."

Lenalee shrugged, smiling faintly. "None taken."

Allen relented. "But…"

Lavi clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. "Don't worry about me – I've seen the town a few times myself. There's not much to do if you've already seen it, but for you, it should be pretty fun. I'll still be here when you get back – working on your dishes."

Allen frowned. "You're really good at making me feel worse."

"Sorry, sorry. But really, just go. There won't be anything for you to do if you don't. Besides, Lenalee will be offended if you try so hard to get out of going with her."

The silver-haired boy looked at Lenalee questioningly. She laughed, and said, "I won't be, if you really want to stay."

Allen looked between the two once more, then sighed and said, "You two are terrible, making me pick between you."

"Then I'll pick for you!" Lavi grasped Allen by the shoulders and pushed him towards Lenalee. Allen staggered, managing not to trip and stopping just before he fell on Lenalee. "I'll see you when you get back."

_He's being awfully insistent. Would it really be that bad if I stayed behind? _Allen shook his head slightly, tossing the thought aside. "… If you say so. We'll be sure to bring something back for you, then."

"Thanks." Lavi smiled and waved as Allen and Lenalee walked out of the dining hall before he turned back to the table in front of him to stare at the number of dirty dishes Allen had managed to leave behind.

"… You better bring back something _amazing _for this, Allen..." Lavi mumbled before starting to dismantle the leaning towers of plates and bowls.

* * *

[A/N] - Ah, that reminds me. Valentine's - or Single's Awareness, if you prefer - Day is coming up~ Just thought I'd mention.

Please read and review~ It'll help me recover from my flu! orz

That aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!


	11. Shopping

[A/N] - Hi~ Read this please?

So my flu isn't quite all gone. But I felt that with the overwhelming amount of support my wonderful readers and reviewers have been giving me, all of you deserved something with more length and story to it.

I'll leave more sappy stuff for the end.

Until then, please enjoy the eleventh chapter for For the First Time!

**Recommendations:** Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner.

**Disclaimer: **Ah, nope. Nope, nope, nope.

* * *

Allen and Lenalee slid into the backseat of one of the Academy's transport cars. Lenalee asked the driver to take them to the town center before settling back in her seat.

"It's not too far away, so we'll be there soon," she informed Allen. "You've never been there before?"

He shook his head. "I've never actually thought about going outside the Academy, to be honest. There wasn't a reason to go before."

"That's true," she conceded. "Pretty much anything you could need is already at the Academy. Shopping is really the only thing you can do in town that you can't do there, since Eliade only stocks the school uniform."

Allen nodded. Students were allowed to wear casual clothes on days where there were no classes. More often than not, he wore his uniform every day because it provided cover for his arm and hands without looking too out-of-place. "Is that why you wanted to go?"

"More or less. There weren't many things I could think of doing inside the Academy, so I thought going shopping would be refreshing." Lenalee blushed a bit. "I'm sorry I dragged you into going with me. I know going shopping with a girl isn't any guy's first idea of fun."

Allen smiled. "It's okay. I don't mind. It's a shame Lavi couldn't go, though. Despite what he said, I think he really wanted to go too."

"That wouldn't surprise me. I've never gotten detention before, but I think I'd do anything to get out of it – especially if I were Lavi now, considering how many dishes you left behind." She giggled at Allen's grimace before looking out the window and exclaiming, "Hey, we're here!"

Allen looked past her out the window to see that the car was slowing to a stop alongside the curb of a plaza bordered by a multitude of shops and small restaurants. In the center of the plaza was a fountain with a sculpture of what seemed to be a tall tower atop a precarious cliff, water flowing from several of the many arches that made up the outer walls.

Lenalee noticed his gaze and said, "That tower was actually one of the first designs for the Academy. This town benefits – I should say profits, actually - from the Academy, so they made the fountain in its honor."

The two stepped out of the car. Lenalee gave the driver a time to pick them up and waved as it drove away. Allen walked closer to the fountain to observe it. "It's an interesting design."

"I think so too, but at the same time, it's really impractical and out-of-the-way. Can you imagine going through all those floors every day?"

"I suppose not." Allen's eyes glanced over the area around the plaza. Though there weren't that many people out, he saw many of the cafés and shops open. "Where did you want to shop?"

Lenalee's eyes lit up. "There's this one boutique that has really cute clothes down the way." She pointed to a street leading away from the plaza and started walking towards it, Allen following behind her. "They stock men's clothes too, so you could get some too, if you want."

Allen was confused. "I don't have a way to pay for them, though."

Lenalee tilted her head. "Didn't I – oh no, I forgot to tell you! Students from the Academy basically have already prepaid for anything in town. Apparently, Mother pays the town an amount of money each year to cover whatever we happen to get here. It's pretty convenient." She reached into her skirt pocket to pull out a silver crest. "The Rose Crest on our uniforms shows the shopkeepers that we're from the Academy."

"It's a good thing I wore my uniform today, then." He motioned slightly to the Rose Crest on the left side of the grey vest he wore.

"That is a nice coincidence – I think you would have been okay just being with me, since I have mine, though."

They stepped into the small store where a brown-haired girl stood behind the counter. Upon noticing Lenalee, she waved furiously in greeting, almost yelling, "Hi, Lenalee!"

"Good morning, Chomesuke. I haven't seen you in a while!" Lenalee smiled at the peppy girl.

"No kidding! You haven't been here for so long, I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me." She pouted, then looked around Lenalee, head moving quickly from side to side. "Anyway, where's Lavi? Did he go with you?"

"Not today. He got detention, so he had to stay behind."

"Oh…" Chomesuke seemed to deflate a bit before noticing Allen standing just inside the doorway. "Oh, hi! Who are you?"

"He's Lavi's roommate and a friend of ours. He just transferred here a few months ago," Lenalee said.

"I'm Allen Walker." Allen bowed slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Chomesuke."

"Oh, Chomesuke is fine." She fluttered her hand at him and smiled brightly. "It's nice to meet you, Allen! Are you here to get some clothes?"

"I'm not so sure about myself, but Lenalee was excited about coming here." The rapid pace of Chomesuke's questions gave Allen the feeling of losing a race.

"Great! We just got a new stock in a couple days ago and I think you might like some of them. Come over here! Feel free to look around, Allen!" Chomesuke motioned for Lenalee to follow her and walked into the racks of clothes under a sign that denoted the women's side of the store. Lenalee shot an apologetic smile over her shoulder towards Allen before hurrying after Chomesuke.

Allen decided to take a look at the clothes, if only to give Lenalee time to enjoy herself. He walked over to the men's side of the store and looked through the clothes slowly, slightly disinterested since he didn't feel the need to get anything for himself. _Come to think about it, I don't remember ever taking time to pick clothes like this when I was under Master's care. He refused to leave me any money of my own and took it all to fuel his unhealthy habits. I think I got most of my clothes from playing poker… _His mood darkened the moment he started thinking about Cross, so he shook his head to dispel the memories.

He walked around the racks a bit more, looking for nothing in particular before something caught his eye. A scarf folded neatly into a square sat on a tiered display of other accessories. The bright orange color immediately reminded him of Lavi, toiling away back at the Academy. Allen picked it up, letting it unfold completely. It was a plain scarf, devoid of decoration, but Allen thought that it looked nice in its simplicity. He refolded it and tucked it into the crook of his arm.

Looking up, he saw Chomesuke waving at him furiously while standing next to what appeared to be a dressing room. He walked over and asked, "Was there something you needed?"

"Not me – Lenalee wants a second opinion! Right, Lenalee?" She knocked on the door of the dressing room while smiling.

"No, no, it's okay! I already have you for that, Chou. You don't need to bother Allen for it." Allen could almost hear the blush in Lenalee's voice.

"Well, he's already here. You might as well take it." Chomesuke crossed her arms.

The sound of a doorknob turning reached Allen's ears and he saw the door crack open, revealing Lenalee in a deep purple dress that flowed down to the back of her heels. Ruffles lines the collar and ran down the middle of the front and along the hem of the dress. The front of the dress was shorter than the back, revealing her legs and the white skirt underneath.

Lenalee tugged at the long, draping sleeves, avoiding Allen's eyes. "Like I said, you don't have to…"

"You look very pretty, Lenalee." Allen smiled. "The color of the dress compliments your eyes."

She met his eyes then, a pink blush appearing on her cheeks and a smile evident on her face. "Do you think so? Sometimes the Academy holds dances in the gym, so I thought having a dress for them would be nice."

"He's right, Lenalee!" Chomesuke clapped her hands together excitedly. "If we just curled your hair a bit and gave you some make-up, you'd look like a princess from a fairy tale!"

"Thanks, Chou. I think I'll take this, then." Lenalee disappeared behind the door again to change back into her casual clothes.

"I'll wrap it up for you when you come out," Chomesuke said, walking back to the counter near the front of the store and pulling Allen along with her. She tugged lightly on the scarf in his arms and inspected it after he released it from his grasp. "This is a nice color – don't you think it'd clash with your hair though?"

"It's not for me." Allen chuckled a bit at the thought of wearing such a bright color – it would definitely make the odd white color of his hair stick out even more.

"Oh, I get it - it's a gift then! Lenalee's hair wouldn't go very well with this color either, though." She wrinkled her nose a bit thoughtfully. "I thought you'd have a better idea of color coordination, since you were right about the dress and her eyes."

"Er, it's not for Lenalee. I'm getting it for another friend."

"Oh!" She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled apologetically. "Sorry for assuming. Which friend is that, then?"

"Lavi."

At the mention of the red-haired boy's name, Chomesuke practically squealed. "Lavi? Then you're dead-on – he'd look great with this color! I should have thought about getting this for him myself! Darn it…" She huffed a bit while refolding it and wrapping it in tissue paper.

"I thought it'd look nice on him," Allen admitted. "I'm sorry if I'm being nosy, but… Would I be correct in assuming that you… like Lavi?"

"Of course!" She beamed, placing the scarf in a bag and resting her head on her hands, propped up on her elbows. "Ever since he came in that one time with Lenalee a while ago, I've always had a little crush on him. He's actually the one who gave me this nickname, Chomesuke. I was wearing a little butterfly hairclip that day and I hadn't given him my name yet, so he made one up and I thought it was a lot cuter than my real name, so I've been using it ever since." She sighed dreamily at the memory, then leaned forward and lowered the volume of her voice slightly. "Enough about me, though – what about you?"

Allen was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"You know – you and Lenalee! You two are going out, right?"

"Er..."

She gasped a bit. "You mean, you aren't? But you both looked so cute when you walked in together! There's no way you can't be dating. You looked like a couple on a date! She didn't seem nearly so happy when she walked in with Lavi, so I figured you must've been her boyfriend!"

Allen shook his head. "We aren't."

"That's a shame… You two look good together." She giggled and straightened up, waving at the aforementioned girl emerging from the dressing room, dress draped neatly over her arm.

"Sorry I took so long," Lenalee said sheepishly. "I hope you weren't too bored waiting around for me." She gave Chomesuke the dress to wrap up.

"No, of course not," Allen assured her. He held up the paper bag with the scarf inside. "I got Lavi his compensation for having to wash all of my dishes, so there wasn't a problem."

"That's good – hopefully, he won't complain too much when we get back." Lenalee looked over at him from the corner of her eyes. "Didn't you get anything for yourself?"

He shook his head. "I always end up wearing the uniform whenever we have a free day, so I didn't think that I needed anything."

"Well, isn't that because you don't have anything to wear then?" Chomesuke piped up. She'd finished packing up Lenalee's dress in a rectangular box and was listening in to their conversation.

"Not exactly. I just feel more comfortable in the uniform." Allen rubbed at his left arm subconsciously.

Lenalee noticed the motion and asked, "You're wearing your gloves?"

"Ah, yes. They are a part of my uniform, after all."

She frowned. "It's so hot outside though – It's bad enough that your uniform has long sleeves and long pants. Here, help yourself a bit…" Before Allen could protest, Lenalee caught ahold of his wrist and pulled the gloves off of his hands. Her eyes widened when she found the blackened skin beneath the cloth. "Allen, this is –"

Allen snatched the gloves back from Lenalee's hands, flinching back slightly. He pulled them back on, a shaky smile on his face. "It's… It's okay, the heat doesn't bother me." Noticing Chomesuke looking at them curiously, he turned to her slightly and said, "Thank you for your help today, Chomesuke. We'll come back to see you again another time."

"O-oh, okay, then. Thanks for stopping by!" She waved at them as they walked out the door and let it swing shut behind them.

Allen walked in the direction of the plaza, turning down a street that ended at the entrance to a park. Lenalee followed, quietly keeping pace with him. They walked into the relatively empty park, sitting on a wooden bench underneath a tree. Silence reigned as they watched leaves fall from the trees and get tossed around in the light breeze.

Out of the corner of his eye, Allen could see Lenalee idly twisting and interlocking her fingers, staring out into the greenery of the park. He felt that he should tell her about his hand, but for some reason, he didn't feel comfortable telling her about the circumstances behind it. It puzzled him. He hadn't had any qualms about telling Lavi about everything on his birthday, so why couldn't he talk to Lenalee about it? She was just as good a friend as Lavi was to him… right?

Somehow, he knew that wasn't the case. He knew that he was more comfortable around Lavi – for what reason, he didn't know. Lenalee had never actually done anything to make him uncomfortable around her, and there wasn't any reason for him to distrust her either. No, it wasn't a matter of trust for Allen – it was simply a matter of feeling. To him, it didn't feel as _right _to tell her, even if she deserved to know as much as Lavi did. Allen thought he was being inherently selfish – reserving the right to keep things from some people and spilling his heart to others? The polite, well-mannered person everyone took him for wouldn't do that.

That train of thought led him to think about his appearance to other people. Even though his hair was such an odd color, and the scar on his face was always starkly visible, the people he'd made friends with didn't seem to care about that. He remembered when he was younger, if he ever happened to meet any other kids during his travels with Cross, they'd always back away from him, and call him a monster.

Once, soon after he'd fallen under Cross' protection, he'd run into a little girl who had dropped her doll from atop the slide she'd been sitting on. He had picked it up and tried to hand it back to her, but the girl had cried and backed away at the sight of his arm. When she'd refused to take it from his hands, he was forced to set it down at the bottom of the slide and walk away. From around then on, he'd begun keeping his arm and hand covered whenever possible.

But his friends didn't care. Lavi thought it gave him character, made him a more unique person. He'd told Allen that it didn't bother him at all. Allen hadn't realized it at the time, but maybe that was when Lavi'd really gotten a hold on him as his friend. That kind of acceptance was hard to come by, in his mind, so he appreciated it.

Allen was sure that Lenalee had wondered about his appearance as well, but she, like Lavi, had kept her silence. He knew that, but still couldn't tell her about it. He sighed through his nose.

_I'm not a very good person._

"Allen…" Lenalee's quiet utterance of his name made him turn his head to look at her. She didn't meet his eyes, but continued, "About your hand… I know that you probably didn't want me to find out about it. You've never taken your gloves off whenever you're around me and you never want to wear anything other than the long shirts that are part of the uniform, even though you don't have to."

"It's… It's not because of you, Lenalee." _It's just me, being selfish. _"They're just… scars from an accident that happened when I was little. I thought it'd make people uncomfortable if they see it, so I keep them covered. It's nothing to do with you personally."

"I'm glad you told me that." She smiled, making Allen feel a tad guilty. "Does… Does Lavi know about them?"

He nodded. "It would have been hard to hide something like this from him, since he's my roommate."

"I see. Well, er…" She blushed bit, looking down at her fingers. "If it means anything, I don't mind the way you look."

"That does mean a lot to me," Allen admitted. "Thank you, Lenalee."

"Of course." She smiled widely, standing up and stretching. Allen did the same and realized that he'd been lost in his thoughts for quite a long time when he felt the telltale pins and needles under his feet. "It's about time for us to eat lunch, don't you think?"

"Sure." Allen suddenly felt ravenous. "Do you have any particular place you'd like to eat at?"

She hummed, thinking about it for a moment. "There's a nice Chinese restaurant near here that another one of my friends works at. I'm sure they'll have enough food to feed even you."

"It's not my fault I have a fast metabolism," Allen said, shrugging.

"I'm sure Lavi blames you anyway."

"… He probably does," Allen agreed. He held up the smaller of the two bags he held in his hand, since he'd taken Lenalee's bag for her when they'd left the store. "Hopefully this will make up for it."

"What is it?" Lenalee asked curiously.

"It's a secret."

Her cheeks puffed out in a pout. "Oh, come on – you know I wouldn't tell him."

"I do, but I'll let you find out when he does. It's not that special so you don't have to be so excited."

"You're just making me even more curious."

"Oh well."

Lenalee gave him a playful shove, laughing as they walked through a door into a restaurant with traditional Chinese decorations hanging from the walls and ceiling. Behind a podium next to the door was a brown-haired young girl wearing a pink dress.

"Hi, Mei-ling!" Lenalee greeted the girl. "How have you been?"

"Lenalee! It's nice to see you again! I've been great – Grandpa likes to complain about his joints and makes me fetch his cane for him a lot, but otherwise, we've been just fine."

"That's good – is he in the kitchen?"

Mei-ling nodded. "Chaoji took a day off, so Grandpa is the only cook for today."

"Oh, okay. My friend and I would like to eat lunch – do you have room for two and food for ten?"

Mei-ling giggled, gesturing at some empty tables in the room. "I have the tables, but I'll have to see about the food. Are you going to eat it all yourself?"

"Oh, no, that's his job." She pointed at Allen behind her. Mei-ling looked around Lenalee curiously to see who she was pointing at.

Allen stepped forward to stand in front of the shorter girl. "My name is Allen Walker. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Allen. I'm Mei-ling." She smiled and bowed. "Please have a seat and I'll be happy to take your order once you're ready."

Lenalee and Allen thanked her and picked a table that could seat four near the window next to the door. Picking up a menu from a small rack on the side of the table, they both flipped through the pages, looking for things that looked appetizing.

Lenalee eyed Allen over the edge of the laminated paper after a few moments of scanning through the options. "Do you know what you're going to get?"

Allen nodded. "One of everything. Did you want some tea, too?"

She almost sighed, already pitying Mei-ling's grandpa in the kitchen.

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[A/N] - I hope the spelling of Mei-ling's name doesn't bother anyone. I know it can also be Mei-rin, but I prefer Mei-ling.

That aside, this chapter was on the longer side, yay~ Long for this story and my writing style, anyway. Thank you's and hugs go to everyone who supports this story! You all brighten up my day so much!

As always, please read and review~ I know the site automatically says something along the lines of, "The author would like to thank you for your continued support" after submitting a review - and it's true! I thank each and every one of your from the bottom of my heart!

Too long, didn't read? Sure. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!


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